2. 


PRINCETON,  N.  J.  -iV 

BR  123  .C67  1884 
Cotterill,  Henry,  1812-1886 
Revealed  religion  expounded 
oy   Its  relations  to  the 


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THE    BEDELL    LECTURES 


/  V       ^^^    '^  1911 

TH£  BEDELL  LECTURE  for  1883         ^^/CiL  'sEVA'?"^ 


Revealed     Religion 


EXPOUNDED   BY   ITS   RELATIONS  TO  THE 


Moral  Being  of  God 


BY 


THE    RT.   REV.  HENRY    COTTERILL,   D.D. 

Bishop  of  Edinbzirgh,  Scotland 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S   SONS 

NEW  YORK  :  27  &  29  WEST  23D  STREET 
LONDON:  25  HENRIETTA  STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN 


COPYRIGHT   BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

1884 


Press  0/ 

G.  P.  Putnam  s  Sons 

New  York 


REVEALED   RELIGION,    EXPOUNDED    BY 

ITS   RELATIONS   TO  THE    MORAL 

BEING  OF  GOD. 


CORRIGENDA. 


Page    3,  note    4,  fo7-  dvx^o?  read  Xvxvo?. 

II,  line    16,  for  Him,  not  read  Him  not. 

21,     "       8, /(?/- truth,  and  ?ra^/ truth.     And. 

23,  note,        for  narSo'S  read  nocrpoi. 
"     24,  line      8,  for  God,  and  read  God.     And. 

27,     "       2,  omit  it  is  evident. 

3i>     "     10,  Z^''  compensation  read  confirmation. 

37,     "       8,  for  tlie  ri?^^  His. 

39.     "     23, /(?r  not  r<?(7</ but. 

41.     "       2,  for  fact,  that  r^a^/  fact  of. 

48,  note,        for  Linlethan  read  Linlathen. 

64,  line      4,  for  xocpocnxT}';  read  Xf^pocKxi^p. 

70,     "       7,  ^w//  redemption,  of. 
"     71,  note  52,  for  XVIII  rm^  XVII. 

95,  line   22,  for  an  rm^  our. 
''102,     "       5,  after  epistle  insert  to  the  Hebrews. 


EXTRACTS 

From  the  communication  of  the  donors  to  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Theological  Semi- 
nary of  the  Diocese  of  Ohio  and  Kenyon  Col- 
lege. 

Cleveland,  June  21,  1880. 

Gentlemen: 

We  have  consecrated  and  set  apart  for  the  service 
of  God  the  sum  of  $5,000,  to  be  devoted  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  lecture  or  lectures  in  the  Institutions 
at  Gambler  on  the  Evidences  of  Natural  and  Re- 
vealed Religion;  or  the  Relations  of  Science  and 
Religion. 

We  ask  permission  of  the  Trustees  to  establish  the 
lecture  immediately,  with  the  following  provisions: 

The  lecture  or  lectures  shall  be  delivered  bien- 
nially on  Founders'  Day  (if  such  a  day  shall  be 
established),  or  other  appropriate  time.  During  our 
lifetime,  or  the  lifetime  of  either  of  us,  the  nomination 
of  the  lectureship  shall  rest  with  us. 

The  interest  for  two  years  on  the  fund,  less  the  sum 
necessary  to  pay  for  the  publication,  shall  be  paid  to 
the  Lecturer. 

The  Lecturer  shall  also  have  one  half  of  the  net 
profits  of  the  publication  during  the  first  two  years 
after  the  date  of  publication.     All  other  profits  shall 


EXTRACTS. 

be  the  property  of  the  Board,  and  shall  be  added  to 
the  capital  of  the  lectureship. 

We  express  our  preference  that  the  lecture  or 
lectures  shall  be  delivered  in  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  if  such  building  be  in  existence;  and  shall 
be  delivered  in  the  presence  of  all  the  members  of 
the  Institutions  under  the  authority  of  the  Board. 

We  ask  that  the  day  on  which  the  lecture  or  the 
first  of  each  series  of  lectures  shall  be  delivered,  shall 
be  declared  a  holiday. 

We  wish  that  the  nomination  to  this  lectureship 
shall  be  restricted  by  no  other  consideration  than  the 
ability  of  the  appointee  to  discharge  the  duty  to  the 
highest  glory  of  God  in  the  completest  presentation 
of  the  subject.  We  desire  that  the  lectures  shall  be 
published  in  uniform  shape,  and  that  a  copy  of  each 
shall  be  placed  in  the  libraries  of  Bexley  Hall,  Ken- 
yon  College  and  of  the  Philomethesian  and  the  Nu 
Pi  Kappa  Society.  Asking  the  favorable  consider- 
ation of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 

We  remain  with  great  respect, 

G.  T.  Bedell, 
Julia  Bedell. 

The  Board  accepted  the  gift,  approved  the 
terms,  named  All  Saints'  Day.  November  the 
first,  as  Founders'  Day,  and  made  it  a  hoh- 
day. 


LECTURE  I. 

THE     FUNDAMENTAL    PRINCIPLE    OF   THE    SCIENCE 
OF    THEOLOGY. 

I.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that,  of  all  the  evi- 
dences of  Christianity,  the  clearest  and  the 
most  convincing  is  Christianity  itself,  when  its 
distinguishing  characteristics  are  manifested  in 
the  lives  of  those  that  profess  the  name  of 
Christ.  When  Jesus  Christ  gave  to  His  dis- 
ciples "  a  new  commandment,  that  ye  love  one 
another,  even  as  I  have  loved  you"';  or  as 
St.  Paul  expounds  it :  "  Bear  ye  one  another's 
burdens,  and  so  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ,"' 
He  added  further :  "  By  this  shall  all  men 
know  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one 

'  St.  John  XIII.  34.  35- 

*  Gal.  VI.  2  ;  compare  also  Rom.  XV.  2,  3  ;  "  Let  each  one  of  us 
please  his  neighbor  for  his  good,  which  is  unto  edifying,  for  Christ 
also  pleased  not  himself." 


2  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

to  another."  They  would  thus  exhibit  to  the 
world  the  true  meaning,  as  well  as  the  reality 
and  spiritual  power  of  faith  in  Christ,  and  win 
others  to  the  Saviour.  And  for  this  reason, 
when  our  Blessed  Redeemer,  before  offering 
Himself  on  the  cross  as  the  propitiation  for  the 
sins  of  the  world,  presented  at  the  throne  of 
His  Father  His  intercessory  prayer  for  all  who 
should  hereafter  believe  on  Him  through  His 
disciples'  word,  He  prayed  above  all  things  : 
"That  they  may  all  be  one;  even  as  Thou, 
Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also 
may  be  one  in  us,  that  the  world  may  believe  that 
thou  didst  send  me."  The  truth  on  which 
Christ's  Church  is  founded,  that  the  Father  and 
the  Son  are  one,  has  to  be  manifested  to  the 
world  by  the  unity  of  those  who  through  Christ 
have  access  in  one  spirit  to  one  God  and  Father 
ofall.3 

2.  But  while  no  witness  to  Christianity  can 
be  so  powerful  in  its  influence  on  the  world,  or  so 
distinctly  manifest,  as  that  which  it  bears  to  itself 
through  its  practical  results  being  exhibited  in 
the  lives  of  Christ's  disciples,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, that  the  practical  Christian  life  is  nothing 

•  Ephes.  II.  i8,  and  III.  3-6. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  3 

else  than  the  outcome  of  the  spiritual  truth,  which, 
being  received  into  the  heart  by  faith,  renews 
and  transforms  the  character  by  assimilating  to 
itself  the  motives  and  principles  of  the  soul. 
So  that,  after  all,  it  is  only  as  being  an  emphatic 
and  conspicuous  representation  of  the  truth 
itself  that  the  Christian  life  can  be  the  con- 
clusive proof  to  the  world  of  His  divine  mission, 
which  our  Lord  declares  it  to  be.  The  man 
himself,  however  brightly  and  distinctly  the 
light  may  shine  forth  in  him,  is  (like  John  the 
Baptist)  nothing  more  than  the  '' lamp'' \''  the 
light  itself  is  the  truth  to  which  he  bears  wit- 
ness, the  revelation  which  God  has  made  of 
Himself  in  His  Son  Jesus  Christ.  That  which 
our  Lord  said  when  speaking  of  the  Baptist's 
testimony  to  Him  is  equally  true  now:  "The 
witness  which  I  receive  is  not  from  man  ;  how- 
beit,  I  say  these  things  (of  John)  that  ye  may 
be  saved  " ;  or,  as  St.  Paul  says  of  the  truth  to 
which  he  and  other  Apostles  gave  testimony  : 
"We  have  this  treasure  in  earthen  vessels,  that 
the  exceeding  greatness  of  the  power  may  be 
of  God,  and  not  from  ourselves."^     This  truth, 

*  QvXVOi,  St.  John  V.  35. 

*  2  Co:.  IV.  7. 


BEDELL  TECTURES. 


however  manifested,  is  self-evident  to  all,  ex- 
cept those  who,  through  their  own  love  of  evil 
and  of  darkness,  wilfully  close  their  hearts  and 
minds  against  the  light.^ 

3.  It  therefore  follows  that  although  the 
witness  to  Christianity  is  of  all  the  most 
effective,  which  is  given  by  the  unity  in  love 
of  those  that  believe  on  Christ's  name,  because 
it  is  (as  we  must  infer  from  Christ's  words)  such 
a  manifestation  of  the  light  as  is  apparent  to 
all  men  ;  the  evidence  which  will  have  the 
highest  value  next  to  this  must  be  the  distinct 
exhibition,  in  the  teaching  of  His  Church,  of  the 
Truth,  which  is  the  quickening  power  of  the 
Christian  life.  Indeed  without  this,  Christianity 
could  not  be  a  witness  to  itself  in  the  lives  of 
Christians  :  first  of  all  because  it  always  is,  and 
always  must  be,  very  imperfectly  represented 
in  the  lives  of  those  who  profess  to  be,  and 
even  of  those  who  really  are,  disciples  of 
Christ ;  and  that,  from  no  defect  in  Christianity, 
but  from  the  nature  and  the  will  of  man.  And 
then,  further,  because  of  the  inability  of  those 
who  do  not  understand  the  true  principles  of 
the  Christian  life  to  appreciate  the  whole  of  the 


St.  John  III.  19.     2  Cor.  IV.  3. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  $ 

Christian  character/  So  that,  in  fact,  an  exposi- 
tion of  that  truth,  which  is  the  root  from  which 
the  Christian  hfe  springs,  is  absolutely  essential 
to  supplement  and  confirm  any  testimony  which 
can  be  given  by  the  fruits  of  this  truth.  I  mean 
such  an  exposition  as  shall  represent  clearly  the 
living  principles  of  that  truth  ;  what  St.  Paul  has 
called  the  spirit,  as  distinguished  from  the 
lette7\  It  is  our  first  duty,  no  doubt,  to  bear 
witness  for  Christ  to  the  world  by  a  life  con- 
formable with  the  holy  doctrine  which  we  have 
received ;  and  our  Lord  Himself  teaches  that 
the  first  and  most  characteristic  feature  of  such 
a  life  is  that  love  of  which  He,  in  His  own  life 
on  earth,  has  given  us  the  example.  But,  as 
Christ  Himself  was  the  Light  of  the  World 
when  He  dwelt  among  men,  not  only  by  His 
life  of  love,  but  also  by  His  teaching,  of  which 
He  said  :  "  The  words  that  I  have  spoken  unto 
you  are  spirit  and  are  life  " ;  so,  also,  it  is  the 
duty  of  His  Church  to  exhibit  in  its  teaching,  as 
distinctly  as  possible,  what  are  the  spiritual 
principles — the  fundamental  laws,  we  may  call 
them — of  that  revelation  of  God  in  His  Son 
Jesus   Christ,    from    which   the  faith  and  doc- 

^  Both  these  questions  will  be  fullv  discussed  in  my  Third  Lecture. 
See  Lect.  Ill,  §  17. 


6  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

trine  of  His  Church  are  derived.  These  spirit- 
ual laws  are  contained  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
in  which  is  embodied  the  whole  of  that  truth 
the  knowledge  of  which  is  eternal  life.  But 
they  are  contained  there,  at  least  so  far  as  the 
greater  part  of  Holy  Scripture  is  concerned, 
somewhat  as  God's  laws  of  the  visible  universe 
are  to  be  found  in  nature.  Occasionally  in  the 
teachinof  of  our  Lord  Himself,  and  that  of  some 
of  His  apostles,  we  find  them  more  or  less 
expressly  enunciated  ;  but  generally,  the  mind  of 
the  believer  learns  them,  or  at  all  events  learns 
to  apprehend  them  fully  and  distinctly,  only 
through  a  patient,  prayerful,  perhaps  a  life-long 
study  of  the  Word  of  God,  "  comparing  spirit- 
ual things  with  spiritual "  ;  and  so  "  beholding 
as  in  a  mirror  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  he  is 
transformed  into  the  same  image  from  glory  to 
glory,"  and  the  light  shines  forth  more  and 
more  brightly,  even  to  the  end,  in  his  life  and 
conversation.  Nor  will  it  ever  be  possible  for 
the  individual  soul  to  become  changed  into  the 
very  form  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  Gospel 
except  through  such  a  process. 

4.  But  to  make  intelligible  to  the  world  the 
spiritual  character  of  Christian  faith  and  doc- 
trine, so  that  Christianity  may  be  its  own  wit- 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  "J 

ness  to  men,  and  commend  itself  to  every  man's 
conscience  in  the  sight  of  God,  it  may  be  asked 
whether  Christian  theology  has  done  all  that 
might  be  done,  and  that  ought  to  be  done,  in 
order  that  the  Church  may  fulfil  the  duty  which 
it  owes  to  its  Lord  ?  As  regards  the  exhibition 
of  the  dogmatic  truths  of  Christianity  the 
Church  has  from  the  beginning  set  them  forth, 
in  simple  compendious  forms,  in  which  the  one 
faith  into  which  we  are  baptized  is  briefly 
enunciated,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  very  words 
of  Holy  Scripture.  But  precious  and  necessary 
as  the  Creeds  are  for  the  purposes  for  which  the 
Church  has  put  them  forth,  it  is  obvious  that 
they  do  not  supply  that  which  is  needed,  viz.  : 
such  a  representation  of  the  spiritual  principles 
of  Christianity  as  shall  make  it  a  witness  to  it- 
self to  the  conscience  of  man.  Indeed,  the 
Creeds  are  not  intended  for  this  purpose ; 
and  taken  alone  they  are  sometimes  mis- 
undertood  by  the  world, — indeed  by  many  un- 
spiritual  Christians  also, — as  if  Christianity  were 
a  reliction  which  demands  of  men  belief  in 
mysterious  doctrines  as  a  mere  act  of  passive 
obedience  to  the  authority  of  the  Revealer, 
without  any  apprehension,  through  our  spiritual 
faculties,  of  the  necessary  truth  of  the  revelation. 


8  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

Ought  not,  I  say,  theology  to  supply  this  great 
want  of  a  simple,  clear,  and  comprehensive  ex- 
position of  the  spiritual  principles  which  under- 
lie and  pervade  with  their  divine  vitality  all  the 
dogmatic  verities  of  Christianity  ?  It  is,  no 
doubt,  the  very  purpose  of  every  true  and  faith- 
ful and  duly  qualified  Minister  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, so  to  make  manifest  the  truth  in  his 
preaching,  taking  the  veil  off  its  outward  form,, 
and  being  a  Minister  of  the  spirit,  not  of  the 
letter,  that  if  the  Gospel  is  veiled  it  may  be 
only  in  those  whose  own  minds  are  bHnded 
by  having  given  themselves  over  to  the 
power  of  darkness.^  But  is  it  not  the  function 
of  Theology,  the  science  of  religion,  to  aid  this 
work  systematically  ;  to  investigate  these  inner 
principles  and  laws,  to  trace  and  expound  the 
harmony  and  consistency  of  those  laws,  and 
thus  to  make  the  revelation  of  God  distinct  to 
the  conscience  of  man,  even  as  physical  science 
expounds  nature  to  the  reason  of  man  ? 

5.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  but  undoubtedly  it 
is  true,  that  in  this  scientific  age  there  is  a  strong 
tendency,  not  only  among  those  who  do  not 
believe  in  Christianity, — where  we  might  expect 
it, — but  even  among  many  sincere  and  earnest 

'  2  Cor.  IV,  1,  etc. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  9 

if  not  very  profound  Christians,  to  disparage,  as 
unprofitable  if  not  injurious  to  spiritual  life,  the- 
ology, the  science  of  religion.  Whatever  causes 
may  have  contributed  to  produce  this  feeling, 
the  result  is  very  serious  loss,  both  to  the 
cause  of  Christianity  as  against  infidelity,  and 
not  less  to  Christians  themselves,  and  to  the 
whole  practical  life  of  the  Christian  religion  ;  for 
all  knowledge  is  effective  and  profitable  in  pro- 
portion not  only  as  it  is  exact  and  definite,  but 
also  (and  yet  more)  as  it  is  seen  to  be  related  to 
central  and  fundamental  principles ;  by  which 
two  elements,  exactness  and  unity,  science  is 
distinguished  from  other  knowledge.  It  is  in- 
deed often  supposed,  and  sometimes  argued, 
that  religion  is  intended  only  for  the  heart  and 
its  emotions  ;  and  that,  therefore,  as  soon  as  it 
is  treated  scientifically,  it  is  changed  from  living 
principles  into  dry  and  barren  formulas,  so  that 
its  spiritual  power  is  enfeebled  if  not  altogether 
lost.  This,  however,  is  to  misapprehend  the 
very  nature  of  Christianity,  which  addresses  not 
the  feelings  and  affections  only,  but  the  whole 
spiritual  being  of  reasonable  man,  and  produces 
its  effects  through  the  knowledge  of  truth.  Yet 
must  not  theology  be  itself  somewhat  in  fault,  if 
it  gives  occasion  for  such  an  objection  ?     If  it 


10  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

be  a  profitless  study  as  regards  the  practical 
Christian  life, — as  many,  even  sincerely  religious 
men  imagine, — must  not  the  cause  be  some 
serious  defect  in  the  scientific  treatment  of 
a  subject,  in  itself  of  the  profounded  inter- 
est and  highest  value  to  man  ?  And  may 
we  not  learn  a  lesson  from  the  history  of 
science  in  another  department  of  human  knowl- 
edge ?  Physical  science  is  nothing  else  than 
the  interpretation  of  the  wisdom  of  God  in 
His  works  in  the  natural  world,  even  as  the- 
ology is,  or  ought  to  be,  the  interpretation 
of  His  spiritual  wisdom  in  His  revelation  of 
Himself  and  of  His  relations  to  us.  And  we 
know  that  formerly  physical  science  was  a  bar- 
ren and  dead  study,  because  it  was  merely  the 
knowledge  of  disconnected,  unharmonized  phe- 
nomena. But  we  know  also  that  when  general 
principles  or  laws  were  determined,  which  en- 
abled the  reason  of  man  to  trace  the  connections 
of  the  different  phenomena  of  nature,  and  to 
conceive  the  complete  unity  of  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  the  visible  creation,  through  sequences 
of  cause  and  effect,  then  physical  science  had  a 
life  and  reality,  such  as  it  never  before  possessed. 
Then  also  it  became  a  study  fruitful  of  practical 
benefits  in  human  life.     And  is   it  not  possible 


Ji  T.  RE  V.  HENR  V  CO  TTERILL,  D.D.  II 

that  the  science  of  religion  has  been  wanting,  both 
in  profit  and  in  interest,  from  a  somewhat  sim- 
ilar cause  ?  That  is,  have  we  not  studied  Christi- 
anity too  much  as  a  revelation  of  isolated  and 
almost  independent  verities,  and  not  sufficiently 
as  Science  now  studies  God's  wisdom  in  the 
natural  world  ? 

6.  It  may  be  urged  indeed  with  much  appar- 
ent force,  that  in  regard  to  the  mysteries  of 
revealed  truth  the  exercise  of  human  reason  is 
not  only  presumptuous,  but  being  beyond  its 
own  sphere,  cannot  lead  to  trustworthy  conclu- 
sions ;  that  in  the  oft-quoted  words  of  Hooker: 
*' Although  to  know  God  be  life,  and  joy  to 
make  mention  of  His  name,  yet  our  soundest 
knowledge  is  to  know  that  we  know  Him,  not 
as  indeed  He  is,  neither  can  know  him ;  and  our 
safest  eloquence  is  our  silence,  when  we  confess 
without  confession  that  His  glory  is  inexplicable, 
His  greatness  above  our  capacity  and  reach." 
But,  while  we  must  ever  bear  in  mind  the  duty 
of  reverence  and  caution  in  speaking  of  the 
things  of  God,  yet  it  has  been  truly  said  ^  that  if 
we  should  take  these  words  of  Hooker  in  their 
literal  meaning,  viz.:  "that  divine  and  human 
reason  are  different  in  kind,  and  God  cannot  be 

*  Caird's  Hegel,  p.  140. 


12  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

known,  religion  would  be  an  impossibility."  In 
fact,  agnosticism  would  be  the  only  possible 
condition  of  man.  Undoubtedly  we  have  in 
Holy  Scripture  abundant  warnings  against  sub- 
stituting the  conclusions  of  a  defective,  and 
partial,  and  often  sin-clouded  reason — infinitesi- 
mally  small  in  the  extent  of  its  range  compared 
with  that  of  divine  wisdom — for  the  teaching 
of  God's  Word ;  and  especially  against  suppos- 
ing that  our  minds  C2in  fathom  God's  ways  or 
God's  purposes.  But,  when  the  principles  from 
which  the  conclusions  are  drawn  are  those 
which  God's  Word  itself  reveals,  and  the  infer- 
ences those  which  that  Word  itself  asserts,  and 
recognizes,  as  following  from  the  fundamental 
truths  which  God  has  made  known  to  us,  can  we 
do  wrong  in  seeking,  in  all  humility  and  simple 
dependence  on  the  teaching  of  His  Word  and  the 
guidance  of  His  Spirit,  to  exhibit  the  consistency, 
the  harmony,  the  unity,  of  the  revelation  which 
he  has  made  to  us.  His  children,  of  Himself  our 
Father  in  Heaven  ;  and  if  through  the  use  of 
that  gift  of  reason,  which  is  the  light  in  us  of 
His  own  divine  wisdom,  we  endeavor  to  clear 
away  some  of  those  mists  and  fogs  that  rise  out 
of  the  carnal  mind  and  obscure  His  truth  from 
the  eyes  of  men,  may  we  not  humbly  trust  that 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  I  3 

He,  the  Father  of  Light,  will  direct,  assist,  and 
bless  this  our  feeble  attempt  ? 

7.  In  order  that  theology  may  be  a  real 
science,  and  enable  us  to  exhibit  the  revela- 
tion of  God  as  one  consistent  and  harmonious 
system  of  spiritual  truth,  it  is  necessary  first  of 
all  to  find  some  fundamental  spiritual  law  or 
principle,  and  that,  as  the  preceding  considera- 
tions show,  distinctly  revealed  as  such,  to  which 
it  will  be  the  function  of  theology  to  expound 
the  relation  of  all  Christian  faith  and  doctrine. 
Is  there  any  such  fundamental  and  central  truth 
revealed  to  us  in  Holy  Scripture?  It  is  evident, 
when  we  consider  the  question,  that  since  the 
revelation  is  a  revelation  of  God  Himself,  the 
truth  must  relate  to  the  Being  of  God  ;  and 
although  we  need  not  be  surprised  if  it  is  one 
which  the  unaided  reason  of  man  could  not  of  itself 
discover  much  less  expound,  for  otherwise  why 
should  a  revelation  be  necessary  ?  yet  it  must 
be  a  truth  which,  when  revealed,  and  especially 
when  expounded  by  Christianity,  its  expo- 
nent, and  in  a  certain  sense  its  development, 
must  commend  itself  to  every  man's  conscience; 
so  that  Christianity  when  exhibited  as  the  out- 
come of  this  principle  shall  be  a  witness  to  itself? 

8.  In  the  Old  Testament,  we  need  not  expect 


14  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

to  find  any  distinct  revelation  of  such  a  funda- 
mental principle.  As  the  apostolic  author  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  reminds  us,  "  God 
of  old  time  spoke  to  the  fathers  by  the  prophets 
by  divers  portions,  and  in  divers  manners." '° 
The  revelation  was  fragmentary,  and  its  numer- 
ous separate  parts  were  diverse  in  form.  It  re- 
vealed God  as  the  Creator,  making  all  things  by 
His  word,  and  man  in  His  own  image  and  like- 
ness ;  the  Giver  of  Laws  to  man,  even  from  the 
beginning,  disobedience  to  God's  laws  being 
followed  by  death  ;  the  Holy  and  Righteous,  the 
Merciful  and  Good,  the  Sovereign  and  Father  of 
His  people.  All  these  spiritual  perfections  of 
God  shone  forth  in  the  history  of  the  chosen 
nation,  in  inspired  psalms  and  songs  of  praise, 
and  in  the  various  prophecies  of  those  ser- 
vants of  God  by  whom  from  age  to  age  His 
Spirit  spoke.  But  it  would  have  been  impos- 
sible for  the  mind  of  man  to  have  brought 
together  all  the  partial  lights  and  the  various 
and  very  different  aspects  of  the  character  ot 
God,  and  of  His  relations  to  man,  in  one  central 
and  comprehensive  idea.  There  was  indeed  the 
one  incommunicable  name  (Jehovah)  by  which 
He  revealed  Himself  to  His  people, — a  name 

'°  Heb.  I.  I. 


R  T.  RE  V.  HENR  V  CO  TT BRILL,  D.D.  I  5 

which  seems  to  express  the  Being  of  God,  as 
the  one  self-existent,  eternal,  and  infinite  Spirit. 
But  although  this  divine  name  was,  through  the 
teaching  of  the  law  and  the  prophets,  and  by 
His  covenant  with  His  people  Israel,  intimately 
related  to  the  moral  attributes  of  God,  which  the 
Old  Testament  expounded,  yet  of  itself  it  does 
not,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  express  these  attri- 
butes. The  fuller  proclamation  of  the  "  name 
of  the  Lord"  which  was  made  to  Moses  on 
Mount  Sinai  when  the  law  was  oriven  the  second 
time,"  is,  we  may  say,  a  brief  summary  of  the 
whole  revelation  of  God  under  that  dispensation; 
and,  like  that  revelation,  it  contains  elements 
which,  under  that  imperfect  economy,  might 
have  appeared  inharmonious,  if  not  contradic- 
tory. 

9.  When  we  proceed  to  the  New  Testament 
to  seek  there  for  the  fundamental  principle  as 
to  the  Being  of  God  which  lies  at  the  basis  of 
Christianity,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  as  God 
is  eternally  the  same  and  unchangeable,  the 
truth  for  which  we  look  must  be  not  only  the 
central  truth  of  the  Gospel,  and  of  that  part  of 
the  Old  Testament  revelation  which  anticipates 
the  Gospel,  but  such  as  will  also  unite  in  one 

"  Exod.  XXXIV.  6,  7. 


1 6  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

harmonious  whole  the  entire  revelation,  both 
of  the  Old  and  of  the  New  Testament,  and  all 
the  separate  parts  which  under  the  law  appeared 
to  be  diverse.  This  consideration  would  be  of 
itself  sufficient  to  show  that  the  truth  which 
some  have  hastily  assumed  as  the  central  prin- 
ciple of  Christianity,  I  mean  "  the  Fatherhood  " 
of  God,  is  not  that  which  the  science  of  theol- 
ogy can  accept  as  its  fundamental  law.  Un- 
doubtedly our  Divine  Redeemer  came  into  the 
world  to  manifest  the  Father,  and  we  shall  find 
that  the  Christian  *'  doctrine  of  the  Father  and 
the  Son  "  is  a  primary  truth  of  revealed  relig- 
ion, because  it  is  the  first  and  immediate  infer- 
ence from  that  revelation  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  Being  of  God  which  is  itself  the  central 
and  primary  principle  of  all  true  knowledge  of 
God.  But  the  result  of  assuming  a  particular 
inference  instead  of  the  fundamental  truth  itself, 
is  necessarily  that  the  theology  which  is  derived 
thence  leads  to  partial,  defective,  if  not  abso- 
lutely false,  conclusions,  as  indeed  has  been  ex- 
emplified in  this  instance.  For  every  one  whose 
mind  is  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  teaching 
of  Holy  Scripture  as  a  whole,  must  admit  that 
the  religious  teaching  which  is  based  solely  on 
the  truth  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  fails  to  ex- 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  1/ 

hibit  clearly  or  expound  fully  the  relation  of  the 
law  of  God  to  the  rest  of  Christian  theology. 

lo.  It  may  of  itself  indicate  in  which  direc- 
tion we  should  look  for  this  fundamental  princi- 
ple, that  our  Lord  points  to  one  result  in  the 
practical  Christian  life,  which,  above  all  others, 
is  to  be  the  evidence  to  the  world  of  the  divine 
origin  of  His  religion.  If  the  love  of  Christians 
one  to  another  is  to  be  the  witness  to  the  world 
in  the  Christian  life,  the  love  of  God,  which  is 
the  source  and  well-spring  of  all  the  love  which 
can  animate  the  Christian  heart,  must  surely  be 
that  character  of  God  the  revelation  of  which 
is  the  central  principle  of  the  Christian  faith,  and 
therefore  of  true  theology.  In  fact,  that  apostle 
of  Christ,  who  was  especially  and  peculiarly 
6  ©foAovos"^  the  truest  and  profoundest  theologian 
of  all  the  ages  of  the  Church,  has  expressly  di- 
rected us  (in  his  First  Epistle)  to  the  truth  that 
"  God  is  Love,"  as  the  foundation  truth  of  the 
Christian  faith.  His  language  implies  not 
merely  that  this  is  one  particular  aspect  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  character  of  God,  but  much 
more,  that  His  whole  Being,  so  far  as  its  spir- 
itual perfections  and  attributes  are  concerned,  is 
comprehended  in  that  one  word.  All  that  God 
is  ;  the  Infinite,  Eternal,  Self-existing  Spirit,  who 


15  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

"  is  and  was  and  is  to  come,"  is  Love.  And 
since  love  is  the  very  Being  of  God,  it  must  be 
the  apjvof  all  divine  revelations  as  well  as  of  all 
divine  operations  and  manifestations,  and  there- 
fore certainly  of  all  theology.  In  the  light  of 
this  truth,  St.  John  expounds,  in  a  few  com- 
prehensive words,  the  whole  of  man's  redemp- 
tion from  its  origin  to  its  consummation,  as  the 
manifestation  in  time  of  this  eternal  Being  of 
God.  And  since  love  is  the  character  of  God, 
it  must  also  be  the  spiritual  character  of  those 
who  are  in  fellowship  with  God.  The  old  law 
indeed  taught  this  same  truth  in  its  own  form  ; 
for  the  sum  of  all  the  commandments  was,  (our 
Lord  reminds  us,)  that  we  should  love  the  Lord 
our  God  with  all  our  heart,  and  our  neighbor  as 
ourselves.  But  the  Gospel  teaches  the  true  ra- 
tionale of  this,  and  supplies  the  motive  spiritual 
power.  The  redemption  of  Christ  being  the 
manifestation  of  love  as  the  character  of  God, 
by  believing  and  confessing  the  love  thus  mani- 
fested, we  know  and  have  spiritual  fellowship 
with  divine  love  itself  in  its  source  and  fount- 
ain-head. St.  John's  argument,  therefore,  is  in 
the  strictest  sense  logical  ;  it  is  a  complete  sum- 
mary of  the  science  of  Christian  theology  in  all 
its  main  features.      The  very   purpose  of  his 


I^T.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  1 9 

argument  is  to  exhibit  and  prove  in  a  rational 
way  the  consistency  of  the  whole  scheme  of 
Christian  faith  and  doctrine  as  a  manifestation 
of  the  love  of  God.  But  to  make  for  ourselves, 
under  the  guidance  of  this  spiritual  teaching, 
further  use  of  this  central  principle  of  revelation, 
and  to  enable  us  distinctly  to  exhibit  Christianity 
as  not  merely  consistent  with  this  truth  as  to  the 
Being  of  God,  but  as  logically  and  indeed  neces- 
sarily related  to  it,  so  that  we  cannot  conceive 
the  one  without  accepting  the  other,  we  must 
first  examine  carefully  what  is  the  particular 
meaning  and  force  of  this  apparently  simple,  yet 
most  profound  and  most  comprehensive  truth, 
that  God  is  Love. 

1 1 .  It  has  been  often  noticed,  as  providen- 
tially ordered,  that  the  Greek  language,  the  lan- 
guage of  the  New  Testament,  and  (we  may 
say)  of  the  civilized  world  at  that  period  of  its 
history,  is,  above  all  other  languages  that  have 
ever  existed,  the  one  in  which  scientific  and  phil- 
osophical distinctions  might  be  most  accurately 
expressed.  And  it  was  the  better  suited  for 
Christian  philosophy,  because  it  was  the  only 
language  into  which  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  had 
been  translated  ;  so  that  it  formed  a  link  not 
only  between  the  revelation  of  Christ  and  Gen- 


20  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

tile  literature  on  the  one  hand,  but  also  between 
the  theology  of  the  New  Testament  and  the 
teaching  of  the  Old  on  the  other.  In  no  other 
language  could  the  truth  implied  in  those  words, 
'0  0£o?  ay  am-}  iariv^  have  been  expressed 
with  the  same  distinctness  and  exactness. 
Neither  of  the  Hebrew  words  used  in  the  Old 
Testament  for  "love"  could  have  been  used 
without  some  ambiguity.  The  history  of  the 
Greek  word  aydm]  is  very  instructive.  The 
classical  words  for  "  love  "  had  become  (as  Trench 
observes  ")  "  so  steeped  in  earthly  passion  and 
carried  such  an  atmosphere  of  unholiness  about 
them,  that  the  truth  of  God  abstained  from  the 
defiling  contact  with  them, — yea,  devised  a  new 
word  for  itself  rather  than  betake  itself  to  one 
of  these.  For  it  should  never  be  forgotten  that 
AyocTti]  is  a  word  born  within  the  bosom  of  re- 
vealed religion ;  it  occurs  in  the  Septuagint, 
but  there  is  no  example  of  its  use  in  any  heathen 
writer  whatever."  It  must,  however,  be  ob- 
served, that  even  in  the  Septuagint,  in  which 
ayocTti]  and  ^iXia  are  used  almost  promiscu- 
ously,'^  the  former  has  none  of  that  distinctive 

"  "  New  Testament  Synonyms." 

^^  E.  g.  in  Prov.  X.  I2,  "love  covereth  sins,"  the  word  ^i\ia 
is  used  in  the  Septuagint :  in  the  parallel  passages  in  I  Cor,  XIII.  7, 
and  I  Peter  IV.  8,  both  apostles  use  ayani].  On  the  other  hand,  in 
II  Samuel  XIII.  6,  ayani]  is  used  in  a  totally  different  sense. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  21 

force  and  meaning  that  it  has  obtained  in  the 
New    Testament.      There,  in  the  writings  of 
apostles  and  evangelists,  especially  those  of  St. 
Paul  and  St.  John,  the  word  stands  out  with  a 
holy  meaning  altogether  its  own  ;  distinct  from 
all  earthly  feeling  and  carnal  passion,  sanctified 
and  consecrated  to  God  and   His  service  and 
His  truth,  and  yet,  as  the  Spirit  of  God  speaks 
to  us  in  the  language  of  the  children  of  men,  we 
must  refer  to  Greek  literature,  in  order  to  com- 
prehend the  true  force  of  the  word,  and  why  it 
is  selected  as  the  term  most  suitable  to  express 
the  moral  character  and  being  of  God.     For  al- 
though the  noun  ayanrj,  which  was  adopted  by 
New-Testament    writers    to    express  an   idea 
specially  and,  indeed,  exclusively  Christian,  does 
not  appear  in  heathen  literature,    the  cognate 
verb  [pcyanaod)  and  the  adjective  {jLyanrixo^)  oc- 
cur frequendy  with  a  distinctive  meaning,  which 
sufficienriy  explains  the  use  of  the  noun  itself  in 
Christian  teaching.     The  root  of  the  word,'^  in- 
stead of  indicating  mere  affection  as  its  primary 
idea,  points  rather  to  those  of  regard  and  satis- 
faction '5;  to  a  love  founded  on  the  consciousness 
of  the  excellence  and  preciousness  of  its  object. 

"  Which  is  the  same  as  that  of  ayi^  and  ayaj-lOil. 
'*  Liddell  and  Scott  on  ayaTtaoJ. 


22  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

In  the  adjective  form  {ayam-jroz)  this  idea  is 
brought  out  both  in  classical  literature  and  in 
the  Septuagint,  so  as  to  illustrate  in  a  very  re- 
markable manner  the  truth  which  St.  John 
teaches.  Both  Homer  and  Hesiod  and  later 
Greek  writers  use  the  adjective  as  specially  ap- 
plicable to  an  "  only  child,"  so  that  it  is  taken  by 
the  grammarians  as  synonymous  with  fj.ovoyevy'ii 
"only  begotten."  In  the  Septuagint  the  He- 
brew word  for  an  "  only  son  "  is  generally  ren- 
dered by  ccyaTtriroi,  and  only  twice  by  /xovoyevrj?.^^ 
From  all  these  considerations  it  is  evident  that 
the  primary  idea  in  aya7t7]  must  be  that  love 
which  is  affection  for  one  regarded  as  surpass- 
ingly precious  and  therefore  "  dear,'' — love  such 
as  that  with  which  a  father  regards  an  only  son, 
the  heir  to  his  estate  and  his  hopes  and  his  hon- 
ors ;  one  who  represents,  if  not  in  their  actuali- 
zation, yet  in  their  promise,  all  the  excellences 
which  he  most  values.  Such  was  Isaac,  the 
heir  of  promise  to  his  father  Abraham  '7;  and 

^'  Cf.  especially  of  Isaac.  Gen.  XXII.  2,  i6  ;  also  Jerem.  VI.  26  ; 
Amos  VIII.  10  ;  Zech.  XII.  10  ;  Prov.  IV.  3.  {^aya7tOi}}ASVOZ).  In 
Ps.  XXII.  21,  XXXV.  17,  where  the  English  version  has  "  my  dar- 
ling "  the  Septuagint  has  jJ.OVOy£VJj?. 

'^  As  a  parallel  in  heathen  literature,  see  the  interesting  and  sug- 
gestive passage  in  Horn.,  II.  VI.  400-4S0  where  Andromache  brings 
in  her  arms  to  Hector  his  aya7tr/T0?  to  plead  for  herself  and  the 


/^  T.  RE  V.  HENR  V  CO  T  TERILL  ,D.D.  23 

the  love  which  filled  Abraham's  heart  for  his 
"  only  son  Isaac  whom  he  loved  "  answers  to, 
and  most  nearly  represents,  the  love  which  is 
the  Being  of  God.  We  shall  find  indeed  that 
whatever  may  be  the  various  aspects  of  divine 
love,  in  its  manifestation  in  Christian  faith  and 
doctrine,  this  idea  is  always  involved  both  in 
its  origin  and  its  ultimate  purpose. 

It  is  necessary,  however,  for  the  exact  in- 
vestiofation  of  the  relation  of  this  fundamental 
truth  to  the  whole  system  of  Christianity,  that 
this  character  of  God  which  the  Gospel  reveals 
should  be  carefully  distinguished  from  other 
notions  as  to  God,  which  are  too  often  con- 
founded with  it  in  popular  and  even  in  religious 
thought. 

12.  It  is,  for  example,  totally  different  from 
the  notion,  which  is  very  commonly  entertained 
by  persons  who  do  not  think  much  about  the 
subject,  that  "  the  only  character  of  the  Author 
of  Nature  is  that  of  simple,  absolute  benevo- 
lence ;  which,  considered  as  a  principle  of  ac- 
tion and  infinite  in  degree,  is  a  disposition  to 

infant,  that  her  husband  would  not  throw  away  in  battle  his  life,  so 
precious  to  them  both  ;  and  in  reply  he  prays  to  the  gods  for  his  son, 
that  he  might  not  only  equal  but  excel  his  father  as  a  warrior. 

Hoi  Ttori  Ti?  eiTrrjGi,  7tar<i6i  S*  oye  TtoXXov  ajAeivcoVy 

£H  TtoXijuov  ayioj'Ta. 


24  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

produce  the  greatest  possible  happiness,  without 
regard  to  persons'  behavior  otherwise  than  as 
such  would  produce  higher  degrees  of  it."  Of 
this  Bishop  Butler  truly  says  '^ :  "  Surely  this 
ought  not  to  be  asserted,  unless  it  can  be 
proved "  ;  and  certainly  it  is  wholly  different 
from  that  which  St.  John  teaches  as  to  the 
Being  of  God,  and  in  nothing  more  than  this, 
that  love  implies  a  relation  between  persons, 
whereas  goodness  or  benevolence  might  be  in 
a  certain  sense  the  character  of  an  impersonal 
law,  conferring  general  and  universal  benefits  ; 
as  God  by  His  laws  in  nature  makes  His  sun  to 
shine  on  the  evil  and  the  good,  and  sends  His 
rain  on  the  just  and  the  unjust.  But  the  lan- 
guage of  divine  love  is  personal  :  "  /  have 
loved  thee  with  an  everlasting  love,  therefore 
with  loving-kindness  have  /  drawn  theey  And 
the  response  of  the  heart  that  believes  in  the 
love  of  God  is  :  "  He  hath  loved  me,  and  given 
Himself  for  me!'  And  as  these  words  of  the 
Apostle  Paul  remind  us,  love,  being  personal, 
is  also  in  its  very  nature  self-sacrificing.  This 
indeed  is  the  distinctive  character  of  true  love, 
of  which  Christianity  is  the  manifestation  and 
exponent,'^  and  it  is  this  which  makes  love  the 

"  "  Analogy  "  I.  iii.  "  St.  John  III.   16-19. 


R T.  RE  V.  HENR  V  CO TTERILL,  D.D.  2$ 

highest  and  most  real  of  all  virtues,  indeed  the 
one  moral  excellence  which  comprehends  and 
includes  all  others. 

13.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  who, 
feeling  how  shallow  and  impotent  is  the  Chris- 
tianity, so  called,  that  is  built  on  some  vague 
and  general  notion  of  the  goodness  of  God,  fall 
into  an  opposite  error,  and  misrepresent  the 
truth  no  less  seriously  by  insisting  on  God's 
love  being  what  they  call  sovereign  and  free, 
which  would  be  undoubtedly  true  if  they  did 
not  mean  by  such  language  that  it  is  arbitrary 
and  partial  and  without  reason.  They  seem  to 
suppose  that  the  intensity  and  value  of  God's 
love  to  themselves  can  only  be  realized  in  pro- 
portion to  its  limitations ;  as  if,  like  human 
affection,  it  were  a  stream  that  runs  deeper  and 
strono^er  in  a  narrow  channel.  But  if  God  is 
love,  that  love,  like  Himself,  must  be  infinite  at 
the  same  time  as  it  is  personal  ;  which  means 
that  God's  love  to  myself  personally  is  none  the 
less  than  if  there  were  in  the  whole  creation  no 
other  object  of  the  love  of  God.  It  can  have 
no  other  limitations  than  those  which  are 
essential  to  its  being  truly  divine  love  ;  that 
is,  reasonable  and  spiritual,  for  it  is  not  one 
aspect  of  the  character  of  God,  but  his  Being 


26  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

itself.  And  it  is  evident  that  the  conception  of 
divine  love  which  some  form,  as  choosing,  with- 
out reason,  a  select  few  for  its  objects,  and  reject- 
ing, equally  without  reason,  all  besides,  far  from 
being  any  witness  to  Christianity  as  a  revelation 
suitable  for  man,  presents  to  the  world  an  idea 
of  God  calculated  to  prejudice  fatally  the  human 
mind  against  such  a  revelation  as  inconsistent 
with  justice.  At  the  same  time,  while  the  con- 
ception of  divine  love,  as  stated  above  and 
accepted  by  not  a  few  pious  minds,  is  radically 
defective  and,  we  might  almost  say,  a  self-con- 
tradiction, yet  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  in 
proportion  as  each  man,  even  by  a  distorted 
form  of  truth,  does  spiritually  realize  the  love  of 
God  as  personal  to  himself,  such  faith  supplies, 
to  some  extent,  a  remedy  for  the  practical 
errors  which,  logically,  seem  to  be  the  neces- 
sary consequence  of  such  a  perversion  of  the 
truth. 

14.  But  above  all  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to 
form  a  true  idea  of  the  principle  that  "  God  is 
Love,"  to  bear  in  mind  the  special  and  essential 
distinction  between  love  and  every  other  similar 
quality  or  principle ;  I  mean,  that  love,  by  its 
very  nature,  demands  reciprocity ^  and  cannot  be 
completed  or  satisfied  except  by  the  return  of 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTER  ILL  D.D.  2'J 

love,  and  fellowship  with  the  person  who  is 
loved.  And,  it  is  evident,  that  this  does  not 
arise  from  any  defect  or  imperfection  in  love, 
but  is  essential  to  its  purity  and  reality, 
and  is  not  less  true  of  divine  love  than  of 
the  counterpart  of  this  in  the  human  affec- 
tion, is  evident.  For  the  first  and  greatest 
commandment  of  the  Law  of  God,  in  which 
is  summed  up  our  whole  duty  to  God,  is 
this  :  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all 
thy  mind."  There  cannot,  indeed,  be  a  more 
distinct  proof  that  the  truth  which  St.  John 
teaches  as  the  origin  of  man's  redemption  is 
really  the  central  principle  of  the  whole  of 
Christianity,  when  we  find  that  it  accounts  for 
the  Law  of  God  no  less  completely  than  for  the 
Gospel  of  Christ.  And  we  must  further  observe 
that  as  God  is  Love,  the  demand  of  the  Law 
on  man  for  the  return  of  love  is  as  truly  and  fully 
divine,  as  is  the  manifestation  of  the  love  of 
God  in  the  Gospel  of  His  Son.  For  love  is  at 
the  same  time  affection  for  those  that  are  its  ob- 
jects; and  also  (and  equally)  hatred  of  every 
thing  that  interferes  with  that  return,  which  is 
essential  to  itself.  In  other  words,  love  and 
jealousy  are   nothing  else   than    two  opposite 


28  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

forms  of  one  and  the  same  principle,  the  two 
opposite  poles  of  one  and  the  same  magnet. 
Indeed,  the  truth  that  "  God's  name  is  yealous'''"' 
is  the  form  which  the  truth  that  "God  is  Love" 
must  assume  in  the  dispensation  of  law ;  and  it 
is  that  without  which  the  opposite  principle  has 
no  real  existence.  And  the  very  essence  of  all 
sin  being  that  it  contradicts  and  resists  the  Love 
which  God  is,  the  hatred  of  sin  must  be  as  in- 
finite as  the  Being  of  God.  Or  in  the  language 
of  Holy  Scripture,^'  if  "love  is  as  strong  as 
death"  and  "  many  waters  cannot  quench  love, 
neither  can  the  floods  drown  it,"  it  is  also  true 
that  "jealousy  is  as  cruel  as  the  grave ;  the  coals 
thereof  are  coals  of  fire."  That  "  our  God  is  a 
consuming  fire,""  is  therefore  not  only  no  con- 
tradiction of  the  truth  that  "God  is  Love,"  but 
it  is  identically  the  same  truth.  There  is  a  unity 
in  God's  Being  which  includes  the  two  apparent 
contradictory  truths.  The  one  principle  cannot 
exist  without  the  other ;  and  only  as  we  realize 
the  one  can  we  truly  know  the  other.  And 
surely  a  principle  which  explains  and  reconciles 
such  apparent  contradictions  cannot  be  other 

""  Exod.  XXXI  v.  14.     "The  Lord,  whose  name  is  Jealous,  is  a 
jealous  God." 

="  Cant.  VIII.  6.  7.  =»  Heb.  XII.  29. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,D.D.  29 

than  fundamental  in  the  science  of  Christianity. 
Nor  can  it  be  by  other  wisdom  than  that  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  that  the  teaching  of  St.  John 
directs  us  to  that  idea  of  God's  Being  which  is 
found  to  comprehend  in  itself  the  whole  moral 
character  of  God,  as  its  different  and  apparently 
opposite  aspects,  and  its  varied  applications  and 
manifold  relations  to  man,  are  expounded  by  all 
the  inspired  writers  of  Holy  Scripture  from 
Genesis  to  Revelation.^^ 

1 5.  We  also  learn  from  this  that  the  law  of 
God  is  not  any  thing  arbitrary  or  external,  or 
even  (as  some  speak)  ^'^  an  unchangeable  order 
that  God  imposes  on  Himself,  for  the  govern- 
ment of  His  universe,  "by  His  own  free  and 
voluntary  act " ;  much  less,  as  some  of  the  Cal- 
vinistic  school  seem  to  represent  it,  a  law  in 
accordance  with  which  God  is  constrained,  as  it 
were,  by  a  necessity  above  Himself,  to  direct 
His  own  acts  and  operations.  But  His  law  is 
nothinof  else  than  the  revelation  of  His  own 
eternal  Being;  and  that  which  demands  con- 
demnation of  sin  is  not  some  principle  outside 
His  own  Being,  but  that  which  God  is.  Because 
He  is  love,  we  must  conclude  that  Wis  primary 

''  See  note  at  the  end  of  this  Lecture. 
"^Hooker,  E.  P.,  Lib.  L  IL  5,  6. 


30  BEDELL  LECTURES, 

purpose  in  all  the  revelation  of  His  righteous 
anger  against  sin,  must  be,  in  reference  to  man 
himself,  the  removal  of  sin  and  all  its  effects,  and 
reconciling  the  sinner  to  God.  In  this  light 
"the  exhortation  which  reasoneth  with  us  as 
sons  "  acquires  additional  force.  "  My  son,  re- 
regard  not  lightly  the  chastening  of  the  Lord, 
nor  faint  when  thou  art  reproved  of  Him.  For 
whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chasteneth,  and 
scourgeth  every  son  whom  He  receiveth."  But 
we  must  not  presumptuously  suppose,  as  men 
are  apt  to  do,  that  we  know  all  the  purposes  of 
God,  when  one  is  apparent;  and  thus  draw  con- 
clusions not  warranted  by  His  own  Word.  The 
question  still  remains.  What  if  chastisements  prove 
to  be  profitless,  and  the  effect  of  them,  as  on 
Israel  in  Isaiah's  time,  is  that  men  only  sin  more 
and  more?  If  the  love  of  God  be  rejected,  and 
a  will  that  chooses  death  instead  of  life  renders 
the  fulfilment  of  the  primary  purpose  of  God's 
love  not  possible,  in  that  case,  as  Holy  Script- 
ures remind  us,  the  very  love  of  God  itself 
must  become  a  fiery  indignation  "to  devour  the 
adversary"  of  God,  who  has  finally  rejected  that 
infinite  love.'^ 

''^Heb.  X.  26,  31. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  3 1 

NOTE   TO    LECTURE   I. 

I  had  not  seen,  when  I  wrote  this  Lecture, 
the  Rev.  John  Wordsworth's  Bampton  Lectures 
for  1 88 1,  in  one  of  which  a  passage  occurs ^^ 
which  expounds  with  much  force  and  distinct- 
ness the  truth  to  which  I  have  referred,  that  the 
moral  Being  of  God  as  Love  includes  the  two 
opposite  poles  of  the  divine  character.  The 
purpose  of  the  lecturer  is  different  from  mine, 
and  therefore  of  more  value  as  a  compensation 
of  my  argument.  His  is  to  answer  the  objection 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement  is  incon- 
sistent with  the  love  of  God. 

"  What  shall  we  say,  then,  to  those  who  think 
the  Atonement  a  hard  and  unloving  doctrine, 
and  desire  rather  a  proclamation  of  pure  benev- 
olence as  characteristicof  our  heavenly  Father? 

"  This  difficulty  seems  to  arise  from  an  inade- 
quate idea  of  the  nature  of  love.^^  It  is  confused 
with  a  mere  dispassionate  benevolence,  with  a 
general  wish  to  make  every  thing  comfortable, 
with  a  state  of  mind  and  feeling  not  very  far  re- 
moved from  the  quiet  restfulness  of  the  gods  of 
ancient  Greece,  as  conceived  by  the  philoso- 

*'Lect.  VI.  pp.  191,  192. 

'^  Cf.  on  this  topic  Martensen,  Christian  Dogmatics ,  §  157,  p.  303 
foil.,  E.  T.,  and  p.  280  foil,  of  the  German  ed.  (Berlin,  1870). 


32  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

phers.  *  *  *  But  the  true  God  is  very  different 
from  these.  He  not  only  wills  that  we  should 
know  Him,  but  that  we  should  love  Him.  '  We 
love  Him  because  He  first  loved  us,'  and  willed  to 
make  a  conquest  of  us  by  His  love.  It  is  this 
expansive,  penetrating,  fiery  love  of  God  that  is 
the  hope  of  the  Christian,  and  supplies  the  ex- 
planation of  his  attitude  toward  the  mystery  of 
the  Incarnation  and  Atonement. 

"  True  love  is  not  benevolence  :  it  is  a  burning 
fire,  a  passionate  eagerness  to  possess  the  souls 
of  those  whom  it  loves,  a  grasping  after  love  in 
return. 

*'  It  is,  therefore,  closely  allied  in  God  to  anger. 
For  He  who  loves  us  for  our  entire  good,  can- 
not but  be  indignant  at  any  hindrances  which 
we  create  to  baulk  Him.  He  is  wroth  with  those 
who  love  Him  not,  with  those  whose  sins  inter- 
pose a  thick  cloud,  so  that  His  grace  cannot 
shine  through.  Such  love  is  akin  also  to  grief : 
it  chafes  at  the  barriers  set  up  by  self-will ;  it 
is  distressed  by  the  meanness,  the  impurity,  the 
deadness  of  those  objects  on  which  we  set  so 
much  affection,  on  which  we  waste  so  much  of  that 
power  of  loving,  which  was  created  to  return  to 
Him  who  gave  it.  It  is  this  fuller  and  riper 
idea  of  love  that  enables  Prophets  and  Psalmists 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL.  D.D.  33 

to  Speak  in  such  glowing  terms  both  of  God's 
love  and  God's  anger,  without  seeing  any  con- 
tradiction between  the  two.  Thus,  in  the  great 
proclamation  made  to  Moses,  we  have  the  attri- 
butes, '  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering 
and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth,  keeping 
mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity,  and 
transgression,  and  sin,'  followed  without  a  break 
by  the  other  side,  '  and  that  will  by  no  means 
clear  (the  guilty) ;  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children,  and  upon  the  chil- 
dren's children,  unto  the  third  and  to  the  fourth 
generation.'  (Exod.  xxxiv.  6,  7.)  The  same 
lips  which  asserted  the  solemn  truth,  *'  our  God 
is  a  jealous  God,'  and  *  our  God  is  a  consuming 
fire,'  found  nothing  in  this  belief  to  prevent 
them  ascribing  the  tenderest  mercy  and  compas- 
sion to  the  Lord." 


LECTURE  II. 

THE    RELATION    OF    THIS  PRINCIPLE  TO  THE  CHRIS- 
TIAN   DOCTRINE    OF    THE   TRINITY. 

I.  It  will,  of  course,  be  impossible  in  these 
Lectures  to  do  more  than  mark  out,  with  such 
explanations  as  may  be  necessary  to  prevent 
misapprehension,  the  several  lines  of  argument 
to  be  followed  in  the  exposition  of  Christianity 
which  is  required — viz. :  one  which  shall  repre- 
sent the  whole  system  of  Christian  faith  and 
doctrine  in  relation  to  the  central  truth,  that 
God  is  Love.  Indeed,  the  more  simple,  and  (sa 
to  speak)  popular,  that  any  such  exposition  can 
be  made,  the  greater  will  be  its  value  as  a  wit- 
ness to  the  world  of  the  truth  of  Christianity. 
While  we  claim  for  such  theology  the  character 
of  a  true  science,  it  should  be  science  with- 
out scientific  terminology  ;  philosophy  without 
technical  distinctions  :  it  must  deal  with  sub- 
jects that  are  the  profoundest  of  all  mysteries, 
even  as  the  inspired  Apostle  John  speaks  of 
them    in    language   which,    so    far   as    God's 

34 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  35 

Spirit  enables  us  to  follow  the  example  of 
that  divinest  of  all  merely  human  theologians, 
shall  be  plain  and  easy  to  be  understood  of 
all  men,  while  it  shall  direct  those  who  are 
seeking  after  truth  to  the  infinite  depths  of 
spiritual  wisdom.  And,  if  we  consider  how 
such  an  end  is  to  be  attained,  we  shall  find 
that  Holy  Scripture  suggests  that  our  argu- 
ments, in  order  to  be  both  intelligible  and  con- 
vincing, should  be,  not  addressed  to  the  logical 
faculty  merely ,^^  but,  spiritual  and  moral  argu- 
ments ;  that  is,  founded  on  those  principles  in 
man's  spirit  which  reflect  God's  moral  being, 
and  therefore  speaking  with  a  power  really 
divine,  an  authority  which  no  logical  conclu- 
sions of  the  intellect  can  ever  possess  ;  such 
principles  being  indeed  the  witness  to  God 
within  our  own  hearts. 

2.  And  it  must  be  noticed,  that  as  regards 
the  science  of  theology  we  are  directed,  and 
indeed  determined,  to  arguments  of  this  char- 
acter by  that  fundamental  truth  as  to  the  moral 
Being  of  God,  which  is  the  central  principle  for 
this  science.  For  the  truth  that  God  is  Love  is 
emphatically  and  distinctly,  and  indeed  exclu- 
sively, a  moral  principle  ;  a  principle  intelligible 

"  Cf.  I.  Cor.  II.  1-5. 


36  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

to  the  mind  of  every  man,  having  its  counterpart 
in  the  heart  of  man  himself.  The  only  difficulty 
regarding  it,  as  we  have  found  in  our  preceding 
investigations,  is  to  prevent  our  idea  of  divine 
love  from  becoming  confused  or  obscured 
through  our  experience  of  the  same  affection 
in  the  earthly  relations  of  those  who,  though 
made  in  the  image  of  their  Creator  and  there- 
fore reflecting  His  Being,  yet  are  body  as  well 
as  spirit ;  finite,  not  infinite ;  creatures  of  a 
day,  not  eternal ;  and  (yet  more)  polluted  by 
sin  and  evil,  instead  of  being,  like  Him  of  whom 
we  speak,  infinitely  and  absolutely  holy.  We 
need,  therefore,  when  we  assume  this  truth  as 
the  central  principle  of  theology,  continually  to 
test  all  our  inferences,  and,  so  to  speak,  apply 
corrections  to  them,  from  God's  own  revelation 
of  Himself.  At  every  step  of  our  argument  we 
must  examine  carefully  whether  the  super- 
structure and  the  foundation  agree  together. 
But  so  lonof  as  w^e  confine  ourselves  to  that 
spiritual  sphere  of  thought  which  the  revelation 
itself  assumes  as  common  to  man,  and  to  Him 
who  is  the  Father  of  our  spirits,  we  may  pro- 
ceed, without  fear  or  hesitation,  trusting  in  His 
aid  and  direction. 

3.  It  is  indeed  obvious,  on   the  least  con- 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  3/ 

sideration,  that  if,  as  St.  John's  teaching  implies, 
love  comprehends  the  whole  moral  Being  of 
God,  and  is  not  merely  one  partial  aspect  of 
His  character,  we  must  conclude  that  whatever 
is  revealed  on  the  subject  of  distinctions  and 
relations  in  the  infinite  existence  of  the  Eternal 
Godhead,  must  of  necessity  be  connected  with 
the  moral  Being,  and  be  revealed  not  to  satisfy 
our  curiosity  or  excite  speculation  on  a  subject 
beyond  the  sphere  of  a  finite  understanding,  but 
because  of  this  connection.  It  cannot  be  sup- 
posed that  the  revelation  is  made  merely  that 
we  may  intellectually  believe  some  incompre- 
hensible mysteries  as  to  what  we  may  call — to 
speak  after  the  manner  of  men — the  constitu- 
tion of  the  Divine  Existence.  It  must  be  in 
order  that  we  may  attain  a  fuller  and  more 
distinct  knowledge  of  His  moral  Being  through 
this  revelation,  for  this  alone  is  really  spiritual 
knowledge.  Indeed,  we  cannot  but  conclude 
that  God  being  a  Spirit,  His  moral  and  (what 
for  want  of  another  term  we  may  call)  His 
natural  Being  are  so  involved  one  in  the  other 
that  they  cannot  be  separated.  And  this  is  our 
answer  to  those  who  consider  it  almost  profane, 
and  at  all  events  unprofitable,  to  reason  on  a 
truth  so  mysterious  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Trin- 


38  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

ity ;  who  imagine,  perhaps,  that  our  only  duty  in 
regard  to  such  a  subject  must  be  to  submit  our 
reason  unreservedly  and  absolutely  to  divine 
revelation.  But  as  life  eternal  consists  in  the 
spiritual  knowledge  of  God,  and  as  we  are 
exhorted  in  Holy  Scripture  not  to  be  content 
with  the  first  principles  of  divine  truth,  but  to 
press  on  to  perfection,  it  must  certainly  be  our 
duty  to  exercise,  humbly  and  reverently,  and 
relying  on  God's  Spirit,  the  faculties  which  He 
has  bestowed,  in  regard  to  that  truth  which  He 
has  revealed  to  the  spirit  of  man  in  order  that 
it  may  be  spiritually  apprehended  and  thus  be- 
come our  life.  And  although  intellectual  specu- 
lations on  those  things  that  are  out  of  the 
range  of  the  finite  understanding  cannot  profit, 
yet  so  long  as  we  only  seek  to  know  more 
fully  and  more  distinctly  the  moral  Being  of 
God  in  His  relations  to  us  men,  it  cannot  be 
either  presumptuous  or  profitless  to  use  in  that 
sphere  of  thought  in  which  this  knowledge  is 
life  to  our  souls,  the  rational  faculties  which  are 
the  reflection  of  God's  own  wisdom.  This 
question,  however,  requires  somewhat  more 
consideration  before  we  proceed  with  our  argu- 
ment, which  it  will  touch  on  several  points. 
4.  It  has  been  truly  observed,^^  that  the  chief 

''  Coleridge,  Aids  to  Reflection. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  39 

difficulties  which  sincere  and  inquiring  minds 
feel  in  regard  to  Christianity  are  moral  difficul- 
ties, and  not  merely  those  that  are  raised  by 
the  articles  of  the  Christian  faith  being  incom- 
prehensible to  the  understanding.  Indeed,  a 
religion  not  based  on  truths  beyond  the  range 
of  the  understanding,  or  in  modern  language 
"  unthinkable,"  could  not  possibly  be  a  true 
revelation  of  the  Creator.  If  creation  itself  is 
full  of  mysteries,  how  much  more  must  the 
Creator  be  ?  The  first  principles  of  physical 
science,  on  which  its  apparently  most  intelli- 
gible, and  simplest,  and,  to  our  minds,  almost 
self-evident,  interpretations  of  natural  phenom- 
ena are  founded,  are  perceived,  when  we  look 
at  all  below  the  surface,  to  be  absolutely  unthink- 
able. And  science,  the  more  that  it  advances, 
instead  of  solving  these  mysteries,  as  superficial 
thinkers  suppose,  only  increases  them.3°  "  In- 
stead of  science  holding  out  any  prospect  of 
making  all  the  problems  of  nature  intelligible  to 
the  human  understanding,  on  the  contrary  the 
explanation  of  that  which  is  explicable  does  not 
bring  out  into  greater  clearness  the  inexplicable- 
ness  of  that  which  remains  behind."      It  has 

^°  See  H.  Spencer's  First  Principles,   Chap.  III.,  on  "  Ultimate 
Scientific  Ideas." 


40  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

been  truly  said  by  Herbert  Spencer  of  the  man 
of  science,  that,  "  in  all  directions  his  investiga- 
tions eventually  bring  him  face  to  face  with  an 
insoluble  enigma ;  and  he  ever  more  clearly 
perceives  it  to  be  an  insoluble  enigma.  *  *  * 
He  realizes  with  a  special  vividness  the  utter  in- 
comprehensibleness  of  the  simplest  fact  consid- 
ered in  itself.  He,  more  than  any  other,  truly 
knows  that  in  its  ultimate  essence  nothing  can  be 
known."  When  we  pass  from  inanimate  nature 
to  the  sphere  of  organic  life,  its  incomprehen- 
sibleness  is  yet  more  apparent  to  every  thought- 
ful mind.  Evolution,  by  which  some  imagine 
that  all  is  made  plain  and  easy,  is,  when  we 
look  beyond  the  mere  phenomena  of  its  order, 
and  inquire  into  the  causes  of  the  growth  even 
of  a  single  plant,  found  to  be  a  mystery  wholly 
inscrutable. 


Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 
I  pluck  you  out  of  the  crannies  ; 
Hold  you  here,  root  and  all,  in  my  hand. 
Little  flower, — but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is. 


And  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  mysteries 
of  nature  are  such,  not  merely  as  being  beyond 
the  sphere  of  human  experience,  so  that  we 
can  gain  no  relative  knowledge  of  them  through 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  4 1 

comparison  with  other  objects  of  knowledge  ; 
but,  from  the  fact,  that  the  human  mind  not  be- 
ing capable  of  the  absolute  knowledge  of  things 
in  themselves,  the  truths  seem  often  paradoxical, 
or  self- contradictory.  All  the  theories  that 
science  or  philosophy  can  form  on  such  appar- 
ently simple  questions  as  the  constitution  of 
matter,  the  nature  of  force  and  of  motion,  the 
unity  of  each  individual  living  organism,  are  not 
merely  incomprehensible  to  the  intellect,  but 
seem  to  it  to  involve  contradictions.  What 
Spencer  says  of  the  first  of  these  is  true  of  all : 
"  Frame  what  suppositions  we  may,  we  find  on 
tracing  out  their  implications  that  they  leave  us 
nothing  but  a  choice  between  opposite  absurdi- 
ties." In  fact,  the  intellectual  knowledge  of  any 
ideal  truth  being,  at  the  most,  but  a  partial  aspect 
of  the  truth,  cannot  comprehend  at  the  same  time 
the  opposite  truth  necessary  to  its  completeness. 
And  if  this  is  the  case  in  nature,  that  no  pro- 
found truth  is  one-sided  and  without  paradoxes, 
it  cannot  be  a  surprise  that  the  same  should  be 
the  case  concerning  the  truths  contained  in  a 
revelation  of  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  God.  It 
could  not  be  a  real  revelation,  if  to  the  intellect 
the  profoundest  and  most  comprehensive  of  all 
truths  should  appear  simple.     The  intellectual 


42  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

difficulties,  therefore,  which  the  Christian  faith 
presents  to  the  mind,  in  such  doctrines  as  the 
unity  of  three  personahties  in  one  Divine  Being  ; 
or  in  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God — that  is, 
the  union  of  infinite  and  finite  being,  of  the  self- 
existing  and  the  created,  in  one  Lord  Jesus 
Christ ;  or  the  efficacy  of  the  atonement  to  put 
away  the  sin  of  man  ;  or  the  supremacy  of  the 
divine  will,  and  at  the  same  time  the  self-deter- 
mination of  the  human  will, — cannot  to 
any  sincere  and  thoughtful  mind  be  a  reason- 
able cause  of  offence.  We  might  with  equal, 
indeed  with  more,  justice  refuse  to  accept  any 
of  the  conclusions  of  physical  science  on  the 
ground  that  its  first  principles  are  "  unthink- 
able." 

5.  And  such  considerations  must  lead  to  the 
conclusion,  that  arguments  derived  from  the 
moral  Being  of  God  are  by  far  the  most 
weighty  arguments.  Instead  of  endeavoring 
to  comprehend  intellectually  the  mysteries  which 
revelation  contains — which  is  impossible — if 
only  we  can  trace  their  relation  to  God's  moral 
Being,  and  thus  discover  their  spiritual  meaning 
and  value,  the  fact  of  their  being  to  the  intellect 
incomprehensible,  or  even  paradoxical,  cannot 
affect  the  moral  argument.     And  an  exposition 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  43 

of  the  Christian  faith,  which  meets  objections 
against  it  on  the  moral  and  spiritual  ground, 
must  of  all  have  the  sfreatest  force.  For  the 
only  a  priori  objection  against  Christianity  that 
could  have  any  real  weight  would  be  that  it 
should  require  men  to  believe  incomprehensible 
doormas  as  to  the  Divine  Beino-,  but  at  the  same 
time  forbid  us  to  inquire  into  their  spiritual  or 
moral  meaning,  which  is,  indeed,  the  notion  some 
form  of  Christianity.  But  this  is  exactly  the 
opposite  of  that  which  is  required  of  Christians  ; 
for  on  nothing  does  Holy  Scripture  more 
insist  than  on  the  necessity  of  spiritual  knowl- 
edge to  spiritual  and  eternal  life,  and  the  worth- 
lessness  of  the  belief  of  the  intellect  and  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  letter  of  truth,  without  its 
spirit. 

6.  I  do  not,  indeed,  question  that,  as  regards 
the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  there  are 
metaphysical  considerations  which,  to  a  philo- 
sophical mind,  may  so  far  illustrate  the  mystery 
from  the  analogies  which  philosophy  suggests, 
that  to  such  a  mind  it  may  be  apparent  that  the 
intellectual  objections  to  the  doctrine  are  un- 
tenable. And  undoubtedly  the  language  of  St. 
John  as  to  the  "  Logos" :  "  Who  was  in  the 
beginning  with  God,  and  was  God,"  and  "  by 


44  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

whom  all  things  were  made "  ;  and  that  of 
other  teaching  of  Holy  Scripture  as  to  the 
Third  Person,  the  Spirit  of  God,  do  sufficiently 
justify  our  accepting  arguments,  whether  from 
psychology  or  general  philosophy,  and  using 
them  for  the  illustration  and  confirmation 
of  the  spiritual  truth.  And  physical  science 
also,  when  it  is  philosophically  examined,  un- 
doubtedly supplies  illustrations  and  confirmations 
from  nature,  not  merely  of  the  Unity  of  God, 
but  also  of  the  co-operation  of  the  three  Divine 
Personalities  in  the  work  of  creation.  And  yet 
it  does  not  appear  to  me,  I  confess,  that  any  of 
these  arguments,  however  legitimate  as  con- 
firming faith,  can  of  themselves  bring  us  one 
step  nearer  that  spiritual  knowledge  of  God 
which  is  the  essence  of  Christianity.  At  all 
events,  my  object  in  these  Lectures  is  simply  to 
exhibit  the  relation  of  God's  moral  Being  to  the 
mysteries  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  first  of  all 
to  that  mystery  in  which  all  Christian  doctrine 
is  founded,  that  which  is  implied  in  "  the  Name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost','  into  which  we  are  baptized. 

7.  As  regards  the  Christian  faith  as  to  "  the 
Father  and  the  Son,"  that  the  Son  of  God,  the 
Redeemer  of  man,  is  one  God  with  the  Father, 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  45 

and  yet  not  the  same  Person  as  the  Father ; 
this  article  of  the  faith  is  so  immediately  and 
obviously  connected  (in  the  teaching  of  St.  John 
especially)  with  the  revelation  of  God  as  Love, 
that  it  seems  almost  unnecessary  to  reason  on 
the  subject.  And  yet  it  is  of  such  primary  con- 
sequence to  the  science  of  theology,  that  it 
should  be  made  distinctly  manifest  how  essential 
and  fundamental  this  connection  is,  (for,  indeed, 
it  carries  with  it,  as  we  shall  hereafter  find,  the 
whole  of  Christianity,)  that  we  cannot  examine 
too  carefully  how  the  Being  of  God,  and  the 
Christian  faith  as  to  the  true  Sonship  of  Christ, 
are  involved  one  in  the  other.  For  He  whom 
Holy  Scripture  declares  to  be  "  the  only  begot- 
ten Son,"  and,  again,  "  the  effulgence  of  His 
glory,  and  the  very  image  (or  impress,  as  from 
a  seal)  of  His  substance,"  is  also  expressly  called 
"  the  Son  of  His  love,"  or,  as  it  is  figuratively, 
but  most  emphatically,  represented  by  St.  John, 
"  He  who  was  "  from  the  beginning  "  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father y  Indeed,  it  seems  impossi- 
ble not  to  recognize, — in  the  use  of  the  word 
ayaTtrjTo?,  both  in  secular  literature  and  in  the 
Septuagint,  as  almost  synonymous  with 
/xoyoysy?}?,  which  was  examined  above,^'  and  by 

•'See  Lect.  I.  §  ii. 


46  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

which  the  exact  force  of  the  word  ayanrf  was  it- 
self determined, — a  foreshadowing  in  the  human 
mind  of  Mini  whom  the  Gospel  sets  forth  at  the 
same  time  the  "  only  begotten  "  of  the  Father, 
and  "  His  beloved  Son."  And,  we  must  ob- 
serve, it  is  not  merely  that  "  God  being  Love  " 
the  Son  of  God  must  be  the  Son  of  His  Love  ; 
but  the  truth  that  the  moral  Being  of  God  is 
such  as  it  is,  cannot  be  in  any  degree  spiritually 
realized,  except  through  the  Christian  faith  as 
to  "  the  Father  and  the  Son."  Because  there 
could  be  no  perfectly  suitable  and  adequate  ob- 
ject for  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  Love  which  God 
is,  except  there  were  One  who  was  both  in  the 
beginning  with  God,  and  Himself  God.  The 
Being  of  God  could  have  no  sufficient  interpre- 
tation and  fulfilment,  in  fact  it  would  be  un- 
meaning, and  a  mere  form  of  words,  unless  there 
were  a  Divine  Son,  as  well  as  a  Divine  Father. 
The  intellectual  difficulty  involved  in  the  belief 
of  a  Second  Person  in  the  Trinity,  is  nothing  to 
the  moral  difficulty  of  supposing  that  there  is 
not ;  in  other  words,  that  the  moral  Being 
of  God  has  no  sufficient  object  for  its  exercise. 
8.  An  argument  of  a  somewhat  similar  nature 
has  been  based  upon  the  character  of  God  as 
goodness.     Because    (it   is   urged)    there    are 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTER  ILL,  D.D.  4/ 

different  forms  of  goodness,  and  if  we  sup- 
pose that  all  these  do  not  exist  in  God, 
we  make  created  being  itself  a  source  of 
goodness.  For  "  there  is  a  goodness  in 
trust,  as  well  as  a  goodness  in  trustworthi- 
ness ;  there  is  a  goodness  in  receiving,  as 
well  as  a  goodness  in  giving."  And  from  this 
it  is  argued  that  there  must  be  for  every  active 
form  of  goodness  in  God,  a  corresponding  re- 
cipient form  ;  consequently,  that  there  must  be 
in  the  Divine  nature  distinct  personalities  rep- 
resenting these  two  forms  ;  otherwise  there 
could  be  no  possibility  either  of  their  exercise 
or  of  their  manifestation  in  God  Himself  apart 
from  the  creation.  That  there  is  some  force  in 
this  argument,  we  need  not  question  ;  and  yet 
it  might  be  with  reason  doubted,  whether  it  is 
self-evident  that  not  only  every  principle  but 
QY^ry  form  of  goodness,  must  be  found  in  the 
Divine  Being.  For  example,  oney^r/;/  of  good- 
ness in  man  is  repentance  for  past  sin,  which 
form  cannot  exist  in  a  perfectly  holy  being, 
though  the  principle  from  which  it  springs  is 
there.  When,  however,  we  accept  the  funda- 
mental law  of  God's  Being  to  be  "  love,"  the 
conclusion  as  to  the  necessity  of  believing  in  a 
second  Divine  Personality  is  not  only  obviously 


48  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

true,  but  as  certain  as  the  existence  of  God 
Himself.  I  may,  however,  use  the  words  of  the 
thoughtful  writer  ^'^  to  whom  I  have  referred, 
adapting  them  to  our  argument ;  and  ask, 
whether,  if  it  be  granted  that  the  very  Being  of 
God  is  Love,  and  that  love  necessarily  demands 
both  an  object  of  love  and  a  return  of  love,  we 
must  not  conclude  that  it  is  even  absurd  to  sup- 
pose, that  hi  consequence  of  His  ujiity  God 
should  not  have  both  a  suitable  object  and  an 
adequate  return  within  His  own  Being,  and 
that  He  should  be,  as  it  were,  compelled  to 
create  in  order  to  possess  it.  And  is  there  not 
a  degree  of  relief  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Eternal 
Sonship  as  a  deliverance  from  the  thought  of  a 
God  whose  very  Being  is  Love,  dwelling  in  ab- 
solute solitude  from  all  eternity  without  an  ob- 
ject of  love  ?  Nor  is  it  possible  to  answer  to 
this  moral  argument,  as  we  may  with  regard  to 
metaphysical  arguments  from  the  existence  of 
God,  that  the  idea  is  simply  the  creation  of  our 
own  minds  and  not  an  eternal  reality.  For 
our  argument  is,  that  whatever  the  merely  in- 
tellectual difficulty  may  be — and  we  may  fully 
allow  that  it  is  not  only  great  but  insuperable, — 

"  T.   Erskine   of   Linlelhau  the  author  of    The  Spiritual  Order 
and  other  theological  essays. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  49 

yet  if  it  is  intelligible  to  us  that  God  is  Love,  it  is 
equally  intelligible  that  there  must  be  a  worthy 
object  of  that  love  ;  and  that  love  is  an  affection 
between  what  we  understand  by  Persons.  So 
that  when  those  distinctions  which  the  creeds 
define  so  exactly  are  interpreted  into  the  moral 
language  of  mankind,  they  are  found  to  be  no 
metaphysical  niceties  for  theologians  to  exercise 
their  intellect  upon,  but  the  simple  and  intelli- 
gible and  self-evident  language  of  the  human 
affection  in  regard  to  which  man  is  made  in  the 
image  of  his  Creator.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
heresies  condemned  by  the  Christian  Church 
are  notions  at  variance  with  the  principle  that 
"  God  is  Love."  Sabellianism  (for  example),  or 
the  confusion  of  divine  persons  in  the  Trinity,  is, 
when  regarded  in  this  light,  morally  incredible. 
It  is  essential  to  that  knowledge  of  God  which 
is  life  to  the  soul,  to  maintain  the  true  catholic 
faith  as  to  the  personal  distinction  of  the  Father 
and  the  Son  ;  not  only  because  from  the  begin- ; 
ning  it  has  been  the  faith  of  the  Church,  nor 
even  because  it  is  to  be  directly  concluded  from 
Holy  Scripture,  but  (chiefly  and  primarily)  be- 
cause it  is  only  in  the  revelation  of  the  Eternal 
Son  of  God  that  we  know  that  the  truth  that 
God  is  Love  is  not  a  mere  figure  of  speech,  not 


50  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

a  mere  intellectual  conception,  but  an  eternal 
reality  on  which  our  own  faith  and  our  hopes 
for  eternity  may  rest  unreservedly. 

9.  That  there  cannot  possibly  be  any  other 
perfectly  worthy  object  for  the  Love  which  God 
is,  will  not  be  questioned.  Whatever  created 
intelligences  have  been  revealed,  or  can  be  con- 
ceived of,  who,  in  comparison  of  us  sinful  men, 
are  pure  and  holy,  and  suitable  objects  of  love, 
yet  as  the  light  of  a  candle  becomes  as  dark- 
ness before  the  brightness  of  the  noonday  sun, 
so  are  "  the  heavens  not  pure  in  His  sight,"  and 
"  He  chargeth  His  angels  with  folly."  Certainly, 
adapting  the  language  of  the  apostle,^^  we  may 
ask :  "  Unto  which  of  the  angels  said  He  at  any 
time,  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased  ?  "  Nor  is  it  only  that  creation  could  not 
supply  a  sufficiently  worthy  object  for  that  Love 
which  is  God's  Being  and  is  both  infinite  and 
eternal,  but  that  only  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  is 
'  Himself  a  Divine  Person  "  equal  with  the  Father 
as  touching  His  Godhead,"  is  it  possible  that 
divine  love  could  receive  its  true  satisfaction  and 
fulfilment  by  the  return  of  love.  Though  all 
created  intelligences  should  return  to  God,  the 
source  of  love,  the  whole  of  their  affection  and 

==  Heb.  I.  5. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  5 1 

devotion,  what  would  all  this  be  in  comparison 
with  the  love  of  Him,  who  is  the  eternal  and 
only  begotten  Son  ?     What  to  man  would  be 
the  affection  of  all  the  lower  animal  creation,  if 
he  had  not  the  love  of  a  friend,  a  brother,  a  son? 
And  we  must  conclude  that  even  thus,  since  our 
affections  are  but  the  image  of  the  Love  which 
God  is,  the  eternal  Son  must  be,  not  only  above 
and  beyond  all  created  personalties,  the  primary 
object  of  divine  love,  but,  in  a  certain  sense,  the 
only  direct  and  immediate  object.    And  thus  Holy 
Scripture  teaches  that  in  Him  all  the  love  of 
God  so  centres  and  is  comprehended,  as  to  be 
exercised  toward  us,  the  children  of  men,  only  in 
Him.     But  to  enlarge  on  this  here  would  be  to 
anticipate   the    question   of  the   redemption  of 
man    as   the   outcome   of  the  love  of  God  in 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ.     For  the   present  it  is 
sufficient  to  indicate  the  essential  relation  of  the 
faith  on  which  the  Church  is  founded — that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  only  begotten  Son  of  the  living 
God — to   the   fundamental   truth   that   God   is 
Love. 

lo.  The  Christian  faith  as  to  the  Third  Per- 
son of  the  Trinity  as  one  God  with  the  Father 
and  the  Son  is  not,  it  might  seem  at  first,  a 
truth  so  obviously  related  to  the  Being  of  God 


52  BEDELL   LECTURES. 

as  Love,  nor  does  the  distinction  of  the  divine 
personalities  follow  in  this  case  so  directly,  at 
least  as  it  appears  to  our  reasoning  faculties, 
from  the  moral  Beino^  of  God.  But  assuminsf  it 
as  the  teaching  of  divine  revelation,  that  the 
Holy  Ghost,  having  the  same  name,  and  the 
same  Godhead,  with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  is 
nevertheless  not  to  be  confounded  with  either, 
there  is  no  difficulty  in  recognizing  that  this 
doctrine  is  essentially  and  necessarily  related,  as 
a  moral  and  a  spiritual  truth,  with  the  Being 
of  God  as  Love,  and  through  that  relation  be- 
comes not  a  mere  intellectual  belief,  but  a  faith 
full  of  life  and  energy. 

II.  Without  entering  into  the  question 
whether  it  is  more  exact  to  say  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  that  "  He  proceeds  from  the  Father  and 
the  Son,"  or  "proceeds  from  the  Father,  receiv- 
ing of  the  Son, "34  it  is  certain  that  the  faith  of 
the  universal  Church,  as  derived  expressly  from 
Holy  Scripture,  is  that  the  relation  of  the  Third 
Person  of  the  Trinity  to  God  is  described  by 
the  word  eunopEvai?  ''proceeding  forth!'  The 
idea  in  which  word  is,  that  in  the  Spirit  of  God 
the  Being  of  the  Godhead  comes  forth  from  It- 
self and  communicates  Itself.   Thus,  in  the  crea- 

'^  See  Pearson  on  the  Creed — "  /  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost" 


R  T.  RE  V.  HENR  V  CO  TTERILL,  D.D.  53 

tion  of  the  universe,  it  was  by  the  Spirit  as  the 
outcoming  of  the  divine  energy  and  Hfe,  that 
the  order  which  was  appointed  by  the  divine 
wisdom  in  the  Word  of  God,  was  perfected  by 
the  co-operating  will  and  wisdom  and  quicken- 
ing energy  of  God.  But  it  is  with  man  as  a 
spiritual  being  that  the  love  of  God  is  primarily 
and  directly  concerned,  and  with  respect  to  him 
the  distinctive  office  or  function  of  the  Spirit 
who  "proceeds"  from  God  is,  as  the  language 
of  Holy  Scripture  proves,  to  form  and  maintain 
that  communion  or  fellowship  between  God  and 
the  soul  of  man  in  which  the  love  of  God  finds 
its  own  fulfilment.  For,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  the  love  of  God  seeks  above  all  things, 
even  as  that  human  love  which  is  the  imaofe  of 
the  divine,  requires  for  its  own  satisfaction,  both 
a  return  of  love,  and,  as  the  result  of  this,  unity 
and  fellowship  with  the  Beloved.  Therefore, 
while  Holy  Scripture  speaks  of  the  "grace  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  and  "the  love  of 
God,"  that  which  distinguishes  the  Third 
Person  of  the  Blessed  Trinity  is  "the  com- 
munion {Koiva)via)  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  We 
are  taught,  therefore,  that  our  love  to  God  must 
be  "love  in  the  Spirit";  and,  in  accordance  with 
this,  St.  Paul   reminds  us ^s  that  "the  love   of 

"  ='  Rom.  V.  5. 


54  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

God," — that  is,  the  Love  which  God  is,  and  which 
God  has  toward  us, — "hath  been  poured  out  in 
our  hearts  throiigh  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  was 
given  to  tis."  Nor  is  this  true  only  of  the  com- 
munion of  man  with  his  Creator,  for  when 
Christ  spoke  to  His  disciples  of  the  union  of 
Himself  with  the  Father,  as  the  type  of  their 
unity,  and  therefore  a  union  in  love ;  and  when 
He  told  them  that  when  the  Spirit  should  come, 
"ye  shall  know  that  I  am  in  my  Father,  and  ye 
in  me,  and  I  in  you  " ;  and  when  He  prayed  for 
them  "that  they  all  may  be  one  even  as  thou, 
Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also 
may  be  one  in  us,"  we  cannot  but  conclude,  as 
the  Church  teaches,^^  that  the  Father  and  the  Son 
are  one  "in  the  unity  of  the  same  Spirit";  that 
is,  of  that  Spirit  by  whom  we  also  have  fellow- 
ship with  God  and  God  has  fellowship  with  us. 
12.  This  special  function  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
as  the  Divine  Personality  through  whom  we 
have  spiritual  fellowship  with  the  Father  and 
the  Son  is  continually  implied  in  the  teaching 
both  of  Christ  Himself  and  of  His  apostles. 
Thus  when  our  Lord,  on  the  eve  of  His  pas- 
sion, spoke  to  His  disciples  of  the  coming  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter,  whom  (He  said) 

"  Collect  for  Whit-Sunday, 


/?  T.  RE  V.  HENR  V  CO  TTBR/LL,  D.D.  55 

*'  the  Father  will  send  in  my  name,"  He  taught 
them  that  the  effect  of  this  divine  gift  of  the 
Spirit  would  be,  above  all  things,  the  indwell- 
ing in  them  of  this  spirit  of  truth  and 
power,  37  <'  If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my 
word,  and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  wc  will 
€ome  unto  him  and  make  oitr  abode  with  him! 
And  thus  St.'  Paul  says  ^^  :  "  As  many  as  are 
led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  these  are  sons  of  God. 
For  ye  received  not  the  spirit  of  bondage  again 
to  fear  ;  but  ye  received  the  spirit  of  adoption, 
whereby  we  cry  Abba,  Father.  The  Spirit 
himself  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit  that  we 
are  the  children  of  God  ;  and  if  children,  then 
heirs,  heirs  of  God,  and  joint  heirs  with  Christ." 
All  this  language  becomes  far  more  emphatic 
and  far  more  intelligible,  if  we  consider  it  in 
connection  with  the  truth,  that  it  is  by  the 
Spirit  that  divine  love  has  its  communion  and 
fellowship  with  its  objects. 

13.  And  this  explains  why  "prayer,"  in 
which  especially  our  spirits  have  intercourse 
and  communion  with  God,  39  is  "  in  the  Holy 
Spirit!'  And  St.  Paul  speaks  *°  of  the  same 
Spirit  as  not  merely  helping  our  infirmities  by 

"  St.  John  XIV.  23.  "  Rom.  VIII.  14. 

"  St.  Jude,  20.  "  Rom.  VIII.  26,  27. 


5^  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

assisting  us  to  pray  aright,  but  as  Himself,  in 
our  hearts,  through  the  medium  of  our  own 
thoughts  and  desires,  '*  making  intercession  for 
us  by  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered  "  ;  and 
the  apostle  adds  :  "  He  that  searcheth  the  hearts 
knoweth  what  is  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  because 
He  maketh  intercession  for  the  saints  according 
to  the  will  of  God."  So  real  is  the  union,  which 
the  Spirit  proceeding  from  God  forms  between 
God  who  is  Love  and  our  spirits,  in  which  He 
loves  to  dwell  and  have  communion  with  them, 
that  our  prayers  to  Him  who  has  loved  us,  and 
our  very  groanings  of  spirit  in  the  inmost 
depths  of  our  owm  being,  are  as  truly  the 
prayers  and  desires  of  God's  Spirit  as  they 
are  our  ovvn.  And  thus,  by  the  Divine  Spirit, 
the  love  of  God  in  us  has  its  full  satisfaction 
and  fulfilment  in  this  most  intimate  spiritual 
union  and  fellowship. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  faith  of  the 
Christian  Church,  that  the  Third  Person  in  the 
Trinity  is  the  Spirit  who  proceedeth  from  God, 
is  not  only  in  accordance  with  the  fundamental 
truth  that  God  is  Love,  but  is  as  intimately  re- 
lated to  that  truth,  and  as  necessary  to  expound 
to  us  its  spiritual  force,  as  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
Father  and  the  Son.     We  find  that  this  funda- 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  5/ 

mental  truth,  as  to  the  moral  Being  of  God, 
throws  a  new  and  bright  light  on  this  article  of 
the  faith,  and  gives  a  new  significance  to  it,  as 
not  a  mere  dogma  to  be  believed  because  we  find 
it  in  Holy  Scripture,  but  as  a  living  principle  of 
unutterable  value  as  regards  our  own  relation 
to  God  and  our  spiritual  intercourse  with  Him. 

14.  There  is  another  point  to  be  noticed  here, 
on  which  the  relation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the 
moral  Being  of  God  supplies  much  material  for 
thought.  There  are  in  the  apostolic  writings 
several  intimations  as  to  the  symptoms  of  the 
spiritual  state  (to  which  I  referred  at  the  close 
of  the  first  Lecture)  in  which  the  soul  has 
become  hopelessly  barren,  and  is  rejected  as 
finally  incapable  of  that  spiritual  fellowship  with 
God  which  is  life  eternal.  "  For  the  land  which 
hath  drunk  the  rain  that  cometh  oft  upon  it, 
and  bringeth  forth  herbs,  meet  for  them  for 
whose  sake  it  is  tilled,  receiveth  blessing 
from  God,  but  if  it  beareth  thorns  and  thistles, 
it  is  rejected  and  nigh  unto  a  curse  ;  whose  end 
is  to  be  burned."^'  And  the  state  of  which  the 
apostle  speaks  is  the  condition  of  those  who, 
having  been  once  enlightened  and  made  par- 
takers of  the  Holy  Ghost,  then  fall  away  ;  and  of 

"  Tlcb.  VI.  4-S. 


58  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

these  it  is  said  that  it  is  impossible  to  renew 
them  again  unto  repentance.  And  the  same 
apostle  elsewhere  says  '''^  that  for  those  who 
"  sin  wilfully  after  they  have  received  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth  there  remaineth  no 
more  a  sacrifice  for  sins,"  for  that  to  those  that 
have  done  ''despite  unto  the  Spirit  of  grace" 
the  fire  of  God's  jealousy  becomes  the  ven- 
geance which  consumes  the  adversary.  For 
the  sinner  who  continues  in  a  state  of  wilful 
sin  after  he  has  known  the  love  of  God  in 
Christ,  has  identified  himself  with  his  sin.  To 
such  identification  of  sin  with  the  will  of  the 
sinner  our  Lord  referred  when  He  spoke  of  the 
sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  which,  He  declares/^ 
**  shall  not  be  forgiven,  neither  in  this  world 
nor  in  that  which  is  to  come."  So  that  while 
omniscience  alone  can  determine  what  the  state 
is  which  shall  at  last  be  proved  incapable  of 
spiritual  fellowship  with  the  love  of  God,  this  at 
least  is  certain  :  that  the  region  of  man's  being 
in  which,  when  there  is  such  fellowship,  the 
Holy  Spirit  expresses  Himself  by  our  feelings 
and  thoughts  and  desires,  and  identifies  them 
with  His  own,  is  also  the  region  in  which  the 
capacity   or    the   incapacity   for   this    spiritual 

«  Heb.  X,  26,  31.  "  St.  Matt.  XII.  32. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  59 

union  must  be  proved.  It  is  the  region  of  the 
will,  the  inmost  sanctuary  of  the  spirit  of  man, 
in  which  his  true  personality  resides. 


LECTURE  III. 

THE  REDEMPTION    OF    MAN    THE    COMPLETE    EXPO- 
NENT OF  THE  PRINCIPLE  THAT  LOVE  IS 
THE    BEING    OF    GOD. 

I.  The  connection  of  the  Christian  doctrine 
of  the  redemption  of  man  with  the  truth  as  to 
the  Being  of  God  to  which  Holy  Scripture 
directs  us,  is  in  itself  sufficiently  obvious.  Re- 
demption is  indeed  expounded,  both  by  Christ 
Himself  and  by  His  apostles,  as  the  one  signal 
and  sufficient  evidence  of  God's  love  to  man. 
"  God  so  loved  the  world,"  Jesus  Christ  said,'** 
"  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son  that 
whosoever  believeth  on  him  should  not  perish 
but  have  eternal  life."  "  Herein  is  the  love 
manifested  in  us,  that  God  hath  sent  his  only 
beo^otten  Son  into  the  world  that  we  mig;ht  live 
through  him.  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we 
loved  God,  but  that  God  loved  us  and  sent  his 
Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins."  "^^     It  is 

**  St.  John  III.  i6. 

•*  I   St.  John  IV.  9 ;    cf.    also   Rom.  V.   8  ;   Ephes.   I.  5  to  7  ; 
Rev.  I.  5,  etc. 

60 


J7T.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERTLL,  D.D.  6 1 

needless  to  multiply  passages.  And  yet  a  pre- 
liminary difficulty  here  presents  itself  on  the 
very  threshold  of  our  inquiry,  which  it  Is  neces- 
sary carefully  to  consider,  in  order  to  exhibit 
the  whole  scheme  of  Christian  faith  and  doc- 
trine, as  consistent  with  itself.  For  how  can  the 
same  word  be  used, — one  the  special  force  of 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  so  exactly  deter- 
mined,— when  Holy  Scripture  speaks  of  the 
love  of  God  to  His  only  begotten  Son,  "  in 
whom  he  is  well  pleased,"  and  of  His  love  for 
a  world  which  is  by  nature  alienated  from  God, 
and  the  course  of  which  is  opposed  to  the  will 
of  God  .f"  What  is  the  meaning  of  mankind 
being  by  nature  "  children  of  wrath,"  and  yet  at 
the  same  time  so  specially  the  objects  of  the 
love  of  God,  that  He  spared  not  His  only  be- 
gotten Son  that  they  might  live  through  Him  } 
It  is,  indeed,  the  very  first  moral  difficulty  that 
presents  itself  to  the  awakened  conscience. 
And  the  difficulty  seems  only  increased  by  the 
particular  word  that  the  Spirit  of  God  has  se- 
lected to  describe  the  love  which  is  the  Being  of 
God, — reminding  us  that  divine  love  cannot  be 
like  the  blind,  unreasoning  partiality  of  human 
affection,  but  must  be  in  accordance  with  reason 
and  with  truth. 


62  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

2.  To  avoid,  or  rather  conceal,  this  diffi- 
culty, theologians  will  sometimes  speak  of  the 
love  of  God  toward  mankind  as  a  love  of  mercy 
and  compassion  only  ;  and  thus  different  in  kind 
from  that  love  which  He  has  toward  those  who 
love  Him  and,  above  all,  toward  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ.  But  such  a  conception  of  the  love  of 
God  is  radically  defective,  and  cannot  but  affect 
detrimentally  our  apprehension  of  Christian 
faith  and  doctrine.  For  pity,  or  compassion,  is 
a  form  of  benevolence  of  which  suffering,  desti- 
tution, or  danger  is  the  moving  cause  ;  but  it  is 
not  peculiar  to  love,  much  less  to  be  identified 
with  love.  Compassion  may  be  felt  by  us 
toward  a  suffering  animal,  as  truly  as  for  our 
own  child.  It  is  certain,  therefore,  that  we 
cannot,  without  much  moral  and  spiritual  loss 
or  without  risk  of  grave  error  in  the  theologi- 
cal exposition  of  Christianity,  conceive  of  the 
love  of  God,  on  which  redemption  is  based,  as 
being  nothing  more  than  mercy,  however  largely 
this  element  of  mercy  may — as  it  certainly  does 
— direct  and,  we  may  perhaps  say,  intensify  that 
love. 

3.  But  when  we  refer  to  the  primary  idea  in 
the  word  which  Holy  Scripture  has  chosen  to 
express  the  love  of  God,  the  reality  of  His  love 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  63 

for  man,  as  distinguished  from  mere  compassion, 
is  at  once  apparent.  For  since  man  was  created 
originally  '*in  the  image  and  likeness  "  of  God, 
it  is  certain  that,  on  account  of  this  spiritual  re- 
lation to  his  Creator,  he  must  have  a  value  in 
the  sight  of  God  infinitely  beyond  all  the  irra- 
tional creation.  He  is  *'  dear  "  to  God,  as  being 
beyond  all  comparison  more  precious  than  the 
whole  world  besides.  And  further,  when  we 
consider  the  other  element  in  love,  by  which  it 
is  distinguished  from  mere  benevolence,  I  mean 
the  demand  for  the  return  of  love  in  spiritual 
fellowship  and  communion,  we  find  that  this 
also  must  altoofether  distinguish  the  affection  of 
God  for  man  from  that  goodness  of  God  which 
is  over  all  His  works  ;  for  man  is  created  capable 
of  that  spiritual  fellowship  with  his  Maker  of 
which  the  lower  creation  is  wholly  incapable. 
Indeed,  in  the  history  of  man's  creation,  lan- 
guage is  used  so  nearly  resembling  that  by 
which  the  relation  to  God  of  the  uncreated  Son 
is  expressed,  as  of  itself  to  explain  sufificiently 
that  which  at  first  seems  a  moral  contradiction ; 
I  mean,  that  the  love  of  God  for  sinful  man  is  so 
truly  of  the  same  kind  with  His  love  to  His 
"  only  begotten  Son,"  as  to  be  described  by 
the  very  same  word.     *'  Let  us  make  man," 


64  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

God  said,  "  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness." 
"  So  God  created  man  in  his  own  imagfe." 
Even  thus  the  Son  is  the  image  {siKa)v)  of  God 
and  "  the  exact  representation  {xapmitt]^)  of  His 
substance."  The  language  is  indeed  by  no  means 
identical ;  and  we  must  notice  that  whatever 
may  be  the  exact  difference  between  the  words 
sixciv  and  opioicoffi^^  the  latter  is  never  predi- 
cated of  the  Son  of  God,  who  is  not  only 
opioiovGio?,  as  a  created  and  finite  being  may 
be,  but  opioovaio?.  ^^  But  that  man  is,  as  a 
created  being,  the  very  counterpart  of  the 
eternal  and  uncreated  Son,  the  inspired  history 
of  creation  plainly  indicates.  And  that  this  is 
not  only  true  of  man  in  the  state  of  his  inno- 
cence, but  that  it  also  describes  his  relation  to 
God  after  his  fall  from  that  estate,  is  distinctly 
taught  in  Holy  Scripture.'*^  He  is  therefore  un- 
utterably precious  to  God  because  of  this  rela- 
tion, and,  next  to  His  "  only  begotten  Son," 
His  ayaTtrfzo?. 

4.  And  yet,  as  Holy  Scripture  teaches  no 
less  clearly,  that  the  very  purpose  of  redemption 
in  regard  to  man  is  his  restoration  into  the 
image  and  likeness  of  God,  which  only  in  Christ, 

"  St.  John  X.  30,  iyoo  Hal  6  7tarr}p  ev  effjuEv. 
"  Cf.  Gen.  IX.  6  ;  St.  James  III.  9  ;  i  Cor.  XI.  7. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  6$ 

the  Second  Adam,  the  Son  of  Man,  is  in  its  per- 
fection and  complete  heavenly  form,  it  is 
evident  that  since  the  fall  of  man  this  divine 
likeness,  which  He  has  received  by  cre- 
ation, is  in  him  not  actually,  but  potentially 
only.  And  this  is  yet  more  apparent,  when  we 
consider  that  the  actual  likeness  of  God  in  man 
must  be  the  Love  which  God  is  ;  while,  in  his 
present  natural  state,  man  not  only  does  not 
love  God  but  is  alienated  and  at  enmity.  So 
that  the  love  of  God  to  man  cannot  be  that  of 
satisfaction  in  any  actual  likeness  to  God  natu- 
rally existing  in  man  ;  but  the  love  which,  recog- 
nizing in  man  the  capacity  for  that  perfect  image, 
loves  him,  even  in  his  enmity,  not  with  a  mere 
compassion,  but  as  the  father  loves  the  prodigal 
son,  and  longs  for  his  return.  That  man  was 
created  in  God's  image,  explains  the  reality  of 
the  love  ;  the  tremendous  necessity  that  that 
likeness  should  be  actually  reproduced  in  him, 
explains  its  intensity. 

5.  Before  we  consider  the  method,  revealed 
in  Holy  Scripture,  which  God  ordained  for  the 
restoration  of  man  from  a  state  of  alienation 
from  God,  which  is  spiritual  death,  to  a  state  of 
fellovv'ship  with  his  loving  Creator,  which  is 
life  everlasting,  there  are  several  truths  to  be 


66  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

borne  in  mind.  And  first  of  all  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  in  man,  as  a  spiritual  being  in 
whom  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  has  been 
awakened,  there  is  what  Holy  Scripture  teaches 
us  to  call  "  the  conscience."  It  was  the  express 
purpose  of  the  Old  Dispensation  to  call  into 
activity  this  spiritual  principle,  the  witness  for 
God  within  ourselves,  and  to  enable  man  more 
distinctly  to  recognize  that  the  transgression  of 
God's  law  is  worthy  of  death  and  its  necessary 
consequence.  But  (as  St.  Paul  teaches  '*^)  man, 
even  without  this  revelation,  had,  from  God's 
works  in  creation,  sufficient  knowledge  of  God's 
"  everlasting  power  and  divinity,"  to  leave  him 
without  excuse  for  his  perversions  of  divine 
truth.  And  the  apostle  adds  further,  that 
"when  Gentiles,  which  have  no  law,  do 
by  nature  the  things  of  the  law,  these  having 
no  law  are  a  law  unto  themselves  ;  in  that  they 
show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts, 
their  conscience  bearing  witness  therewith,  and 
their  thoughts  (or  reasonings)  one  with  another 
accusing  or  else  excusing  them."  A  further  pur- 
pose of  the  law  was  to  educate  the  conscience 
of  man  as  to  the  necessity  of  a  sacrifice,  or  pro- 
pitiation, being  offered  for  sin,  in  order  that  the 

"  Rom.  I.  II. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERTLL,  D.D.  6j 

sinner  may  be  restored  into  spiritual  fellowship 
and  communion  with  a  God  of  Love.     But  it  is  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  this  truth  was  originally 
or  exclusively  taught  by  the  Mosaic  law.     "  The 
first  impulse  of  men,  under  the  dictates  of  nature, 
has  almost  always  been  to  acknowledge  a  re- 
sponsibility to  a  Divine  Power,  and  to  offer  some 
expiation  for  the  offences  they  have  committed. 
The  sacrifices  of  the  Jews  are  but  a  more  elab- 
orate  illustration   of  the  universal  practice  of 
mankind ;  and  if  the  general  prevalence  of  an 
instinct  can  be  regarded  as  any  proof  of  the  be- 
lief it  implies,  there  are  few  cases  in  which  ex- 
perience supplies  a  stronger  argument  than  is 
afforded  in  favor  of  the  necessity  of  an  atone- 
ment by  the  practice  of  expiating  sacrifices."  '♦^ 
This  demand   of  conscience — though  in    hea- 
thenism it  has  manifested  itself  in  superstitious, 
monstrous,  and  indeed  impious   forms,  wholly 
inconsistent  with  the  truth  that  God  is  Love, 
— is  nevertheless  (however  defective  and  erro- 
neous) a  universal  witness  in  man  to  the  neces- 
sity of  satisfaction  being  made  for  the  transgres- 
sion of  God's  law ;  and  the  demand  cannot  be 

**  Wace's  Boyle  Lectures  for  1874.  Lecture  VI.,  "  ThePrinciple 
of  Atonement."  I  have  taken  several  suggestions  from  this  valuable 
and  interesting  lecture. 


^S  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

satisfied  except  by  a  reality.  While  the  express 
purpose  of  the  elaborate  distinctions  and  the 
carefully  provided  order,  in  the  sacrifices  com- 
manded by  the  law  of  Moses,  was  to  guard 
against  the  heathen  perversions  of  the  idea  of 
sacrifice,  and  to  teach  that  propitiation  through 
sacrifice  is  consistent  with  God's  fatherly  love 
to  man,  yet  the  sacrifices  themselves,  though 
ordained  by  divine  authority,  were  proved  by 
their  constant  repetition  year  by  year  (as  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  reminds  us)  to  be 
wholly  unable  to  satisfy  and  purify  the  con- 
science, which  nothing  whatever  but  spiritual 
and  divine  reality  can  ever  absolve.^"  All  that 
these  sacrifices  could  do,  was  to  point  forward 
to  a  real  propitiation  for  sin,  hereafter  to  be 
manifested ;  in  which  man's  guilty  conscience 
should  be  once  for  all  reconciled  to  its  God. 
"  But  Christ  having  come  a  high  priest  of  the 
good  things  to  come,  through  his  own  blood 
entered  in  once  for  all  into  the  true  holy  place, 
heaven  itself,  having  obtained  redemption  for 
us."  "  For  if  the  blood  of  goats  and  bulls  satisfy 
unto  the  cleanness  of  the  flesh," — purifying 
from  ceremonial  defilement, — "  how  much  more 
shall  the   blood   of  Christ,   who   through   the 

"  Heb.  IX.  9,  lo,  14  ;  X.  1-4. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  69 

eternal  Spirit  offered  himself  without  blemish 
unto  God,  cleanse  yotir  conscience  from  dead 
works  to  serve  the  living  God. 

6.  But,  further,  for  the  complete  restoration 
of  man  into  a  state  of  fellowship  with  God,  it 
was  necessary  not  only  that  the  conscience 
should  be  cleansed  by  a  real  satisfaction  for  sin, 
but  also  that  the  love  of  God  toward  us  should 
be  so  manifested  as  to  be  the  rational  ground 
for  our  loving  Him.  It  is  certain  that  there  is 
no  other  religion,  except  Christianity,  which  has 
even  professed  to  reveal  any  method  whatever 
through  which  this  moral  and  spiritual  restora- 
tion of  man,  from  a  condition  of  alienation  from 
God  and  His  love,  to  one  of  fellowship  with  that 
love,  could  be  effected.  And  yet  the  necessity 
for  this,  if  man  is  to  be  a  partaker  of  the  bless- 
edness of  God,  and  to  obtain  salvation  from  the 
evils  with  which  human  life  is  filled,  as  we  know 
by  our  own  miserable  experience,  is  obvious. 
That  is,  it  is  obvious  if  we  allow  the  funda- 
mental principle,  that  the  moral  Being  of  God  is 
Love.  What  that  method  for  restoring  man  is, 
which  is  embodied  in  Christian  faith  and  doc- 
trine, and  how  truly  and  fully  it  is  the  exponent 
of  that  infinite  love  of  which  the  eternal  Son  of 
God  is  the  primary  and  all  comprehensive  ob- 
ject, we  must  now  examine  more  fully. 


70  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

7.  There  is  no  book  of  Holy  Scripture  in 
which  the  subject  of  redemption,  in  its  pro- 
foundest  aspects,  is  more  completely,  and  (we 
may  say)  scientifically  expounded,  than  in  that 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  to  which  reference  has 
been  already  made  as  teaching  the  subjective 
efficacy  of  redemption,  of  Christ's  sacrifice,  as 
regards  the  conscience.  The  exposition  being 
intended  for  those  who  have  been  trained 
through  the  teaching  and  the  ritual  of  the  Old 
Dispensation,  exhibits  Christianity  as  the  devel- 
opment and  only  true  fulfilment  of  the  Mosaic 
economy  ;  yet  it  is  far  from  being  a  mere  com- 
mentary on  that  religious  system,  or  setting 
forth  any  one  particular  phase  of  Christian 
faith  and  doctrine.  It  is  as  catholic,  in  its  repre- 
sentation of  Christianity  as  intended  for  the 
whole  race  of  mankind,  as  if  it  had  been  written 
for  Gentile  converts.  Its  primary  subject  is  the 
Son  of  God,  in  whom  God  has  spoken  in  these 
latter  days,  and  through  whom,  in  the  begin- 
ning, all  things  included  in  the  conditions  of 
time  and  space  were  created ;  who,  being  God 
of  God,  Light  of  Light,  and  one  God  with  the 
Father,  of  the  same  almighty  and  universal 
sovereignty,  after  that  through  a  brief  period  of 
humiliation  "  He  had  made  purification  of  sins," 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  7 1 

sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on 
high,  as  being  Himself  superior  to  all  the  high- 
est and  most  glorious  of  created  beings.  The 
nature  of  this  humiliation,  through  which  He 
made  this  purification  of  sins,  is  then  more  par- 
ticularly described. 

8.  In  order,  however,  to  apprehend  the  rela- 
tion of  the  redemption  of  man,  as  here  described, 
to  the  Being  of  God  as  Love,  we  must  first  recall 
our  Lord's  words,  when,  in  anticipation  of  His 
death  and  passion.  He  said^':  "  Therefore  doth 
the  Father  love  me,  because  I  lay  down  my  life 
that  I  may  take  it  again ;  no  one  taketh  it  from 
me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself.  I  have  power 
to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it 
again.  This  commandment  have  I  received  of 
my  Father."  The  work  of  redemption  is  repre- 
sented by  Christ  Himself  as  His  own  voluntary 
fulfilment  of  the  will  of  the  Father,  in  order  that 
He  might  glorify  the  Father  and  Himself  in 
this  marvellous  work.^'  And  this  view  of 
redemption  is  further  explained  by  St.  Paul 
when  53  he  speaks  of  our  Redeemer  as  one  who, 
being  in  the  form  of  God,  might  have  claimed 
equality   with    God   as    His    right,    yet   chose 

"  St.  John  X.  17,  i8.  "  Compare  St.  John  XVIII.  i,  2,5. 

"  Phil.  II.  6,  II. 


^2  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

humiliation  in  our  nature  as  the  means  of  our 
salvation,  even  though  it  involved  obedience 
unto  death,  yea,  the  death  of  the  cross.  And 
in  return  for  this,  He  received  from  God  exal- 
tation, as  the  Redeemer  of  mankind,  to  the 
right  hand  of  Majesty,  and  a  name  above  every 
name,  in  which  all  creation  should  recognize 
Jesus  as  their  Lord  to  the  glory  of  God  the 
Father.  There  is,  it  will  be  observed,  perfect 
consistency  throughout  in  the  view  of  redemp- 
tion, as  given  both  by  our  Lord  Himself  and  by 
St.  Paul ;  and  this  view  we  find  completed  in 
the  Episde  to  the  Hebrews.  The  apostolic 
writer  refers  ^^  to  a  prophecy  in  the  eighth 
Psalm,  of  the  exaltation  of  man  by  God  visiting 
him,  which  was  to  be  fulfilled  in  Christ ;  and 
though  we  do  not,  as  yet,  see  all  things  subject 
to  man,  as  foretold,  yet  we  behold  Him  who 
was  made  for  a  little  while  lower  than  the  an- 
gels, even  Jesus,  because  of  the  suffering  of 
death  crowned  with  glory  and  honor,  that  by 
the  grace  of  God  He  should  taste  death  for 
every  man.  "  For  it  became  Him  " — that  is, 
God — "  for  whom  are  all  things,  and  through 
whom  are  all  things,  in  bringing  many  sons  unto 
glory,  to  make  the  author  (or  leader)  of  their 

"  Heb.  II.  6,  etc. 


RT.   REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  ^^ 

salvation  perfect  through  sufferings."  In  other 
words,  it  was  consistent  with  the  character  of  God, 
who  is  Love,  that,  in  the  fulfilment  of  His  purpose 
of  love  to  the  children  of  man,  their  Redeemer 
should  in  all  things  be  qualified  for  His  mighty 
work  of  salvation.  This  was  to  be  effected 
through  suffering,  even  unto  death,  in  man's 
nature,  for  His  suffering  was  essential  to  that 
exaltation,  by  which  alone  His  work  would  become 
available  for  the  whole  family  of  man.  And  this 
argument  the  apostle  confirms  and  further  illus- 
trates, from  that  to  which  we  referred,  in  con- 
sidering the  meaning  of  the  love  of  God  to  man, 
though  fallen  and  disobedient ;  I  mean  that 
very  intimate  relation  between  the  Redeemer 
and  the  redeemed,  the  Sanctifier  and  the  sanc- 
tified, of  which  the  incarnation  and  death  of  the 
Son  of  God,  for  the  sake  of  those  who  by  crea- 
tion are  children  of  God,  is  the  result. 

9.  In  this  argument  it  must  be  first  noticed, 
as  regards  the  relation  of  the  doctrine  of 
redemption  to  the  fundamental  principle  of 
Christian  theology,  that  the  primary  purpose 
in  this  divine  work,  as  here  represented,  has 
respect  to  Him  who,  (we  have  concluded  from 
the  Being  of  God  as  Love,)  must  from  all  eternity 
and  throughout  all  ages  be  the  primary  object 


74  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

of  Divine  Love,  which  God  is.  There  are  some 
theological  explanations  of  redemption  from 
which  it  would  be  impossible  not  to  draw  the  in- 
ference,— which  is  not  only  absurd  but  impious, 
— that  when  God  spared  not  His  own  Son,  but 
delivered  Him  up  for  us  all,  Pie  loved  the  world 
of  sinful  men  more  than  He  loved  His  only  Son. 
Especially  is  this  the  case  with  some  of  the  rep- 
resentations of  the  passion  and  death  of  Christ 
■^i?,  punishment  endured  as  an  equivalent,  for  that 
which  was  due  to  God's  justice  on  account  of 
the  sins  of  those  who  are  delivered  from  the 
punishment  through  the  debt  being  paid.  This 
mean  view  of  redemption,  which  is  an  instance 
of  the  danger  of  drav/Ing  conclusions  from  the 
mere  letter  of  Holy  Scripture,^^  jg  one  that  has 
often  excited  prejudices  against  Christianity  ; 
and  yet  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  any  view  more 
inconsistent  with  its  spirit,  or  that  tends  more 
to  make  the  whole  revelation  both  of  God's 
love,  and  of  God's  wrath  against  sin,  which  is 
the  necessary  opposite  of  His  love,  an  unreal- 
ity. It  assumes  also  that  there  is  some  moral 
or  spiritual  value  in  suffering  in  itself,  as  if  the 
value  were  not  merely  in   the   love   itself  of 

°*  See  on  this,  Wace's  Boyle  Lectures  for  1874,  Lect.  VI.  (before 
referred  to),  and  for  a  philosophical  discussion  of  the  question,  Cole- 
ridge's ^?Vj  to  Rejlection,  313-331. 


R  T.  RE  V.  HENR  Y  CO  TTERILL,  D.D.  75 

which  it  is  the  exponent  ;  and,  further,  it  loses 
sight  of  the  truth  that  the  wrong  done  by  the 
sin  of  man,  though  it  may  be  expressed  meta- 
phorically as  a  debt  incurred,  yet  is  a  wrong 
to  love,  and  cannot  be  repaired  on  any  such 
principle  as  the  payment  of  a  debt  ;  for  who 
does  not  know  that  "  if  a  man  would  give  all 
the  substance  of  his  house  for  love  it  w^ould  be 
utterly  contemned"  ? 5^  Reparation  for  an  in- 
jury to  love  can  only  be  made  by  acts  or  other 
proofs  of  love,  with  which  he  who  has  done  the 
wrojig  is  personally  i7i  spirit  identijied.  But 
without  considering  further  here  what  are  the 
fatal  objections  to  any  view  of  redemption  in 
which  such  truths  as  these  are  forgotten,  it 
seems  to  me,  I  confess,  the  most  serious  objec- 
tion of  all  to  that  which  represents  the  sacrifice 
of  Christ  as  "  vicarous  punishment,"  that  it  ob- 
scures the  truth  that  the  love  of  God  for  man  is 
wholly  171  Christ  the  Son  of  His  Love.  In  the 
view  given  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  this 
truth  is  of  all  the  most  prominent  ;  Christ,  the 
eternal  Son,  is  the  one  object  that  Holy  Script- 
ture  here  reveals  as  the  representative  of  God's 
love  in  the  act  of  redemption. 

lo.  Instead,  therefore,  of  attempting,  either 

"  Cant.  VIII.  7. 


76  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

on  the  theory  before  referred  to,  or  on  any- 
other,  to  explain  to  our  speculative  reason  the 
mystery  of  the  Atonement,  which  can  lead  to  no 
profitable  result,  but  will  only  encumber  Chris- 
tianity with  doctrines  for  which  it  is  in  no  way 
responsible,  let  us  consider  what  is  the  sum 
and  substance  of  the  whole  doctrine  of  redemp- 
tion, as  here  presented  to  our  faith.  It  is  that 
for  our  sakes,  the  eternal  Son  of  God,  in  whom 
He  is  always  well  pleased,  was  made  man,  in 
order  that  He  might  voluntarily  bear  the  whole 
burden  of  suffering  and  sorrow  to  which  man- 
kind is  liable.  It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to 
doubt  that  this  world  is  full  of  moral  and  physical 
evil,  and  of  suffering  and  death,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  origin.  If  revelation  tells  us 
that  the  origin  was  man's  own  disobedience,  it 
tells  us  also  that  man  is  not  left  to  struggle  by 
himself  against  an  irresistible  flood  of  evil,  but 
that  God,  his  loving  Father,  through  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  Son  of  His  love,  has  provided  the 
remedy.  This  is  the  view  of  Christianity  which 
the  apostle  expounds  in  the  following  argument 
of  his  epistle.  He  does  not  attempt  to  explain 
the  objective  efficacy  of  Christ's  death  as  the 
propitiation  for  sin,  beyond  saying  that  He  took 
our  nature   in  order  "that  through  death  He 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  7/ 

might  bring  to  naught  him  that  had  the  power 
of  death,  that  is  the  devil";  which  only  reminds 
us  how  many  reasons  may  exist  which  made 
the  atonement  necessary,  from  the  constitution 
of  the  unseen  spiritual  world,  and  which  we  at 
present  cannot  understand.  But  he  dwells 
specially  on  the  spiritual  efficacy  of  the  work 
of  the  Redeemer  as  having  so  near  and  inti- 
mate a  relation  with  us  men :  ''Wherefore  it  be- 
hooved him  in  all  things  to  be  made  like  unto 
his  brethren,  that  he  might  be  a  merciful  and 
faithful  high  priest  in  things  pertaining  to  God 
to  make  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  people. 
For  in  that  he  himself  hath  suffered  being 
tempted,  he  is  able  to  succor  them  that  are 
tempted.""  And  again  -.^^  "For  we  have  not  a 
high  priest  that  cannot  be  touched  with  a  feel- 
ing of  our  infirmities,  but  one  that  hath  been  in 
all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without 
sin."  And  this  the  apostle  expounds  when  he 
says  that  this  Divine  Redeemer,^^  "in  the  days 
of  His  flesh,  having  offered  up  prayers  and  sup- 
plications, with  strong  crying  and  tears,  unto 
him  that  was  able  to  save  him  from  death, 
and  having  been  heard  for  his  godly  fear, 
though  he  was  a  Son,  yet  learned  obedience 

"Heb.  II.  17,  18.  "Heb.  IV.  15.  "Ileb.  V.  7-9. 


78  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

through  the  things  that  he  suffered,  and  hav- 
ing been  made  perfect,  he  became  unto  all 
them  that  obey  him  the  author  of  eternal  sal- 
vation." 

1 1 .  We  are  here  brought  to  the  very  essence 
of  Christianity,  as  distinguished  from  all  other 
religions — I  mean  that  it  reveals  God  not  merely 
as  perfectly  just  and  holy,  as  supremely  glorious, 
as  infinite  in  majesty  and  power.  This,  indeed, 
it  does  ;  but  if  this  were  all,  Christianity  could 
bear  no  such  witness  to  itself  as  when  it  reveals 
God  as  giving  His  only  Son,  One  with  Himself, 
to  be  "a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief";  to  be  "wounded  for  our  transgressions 
and  bruised  for  our  iniquities";  One  on  whom 
was  "the  chastisement  of  our  peace,"  and  on 
whom  "  the  Lord  hath  laid  the  iniquity  of  us  all." 
If  the  revelation  had  been  destitute  of  this,  it 
might  have  given  us  a  view  of  the  Divine  Being 
to  which  the  human  mind  would  readily  assent ; 
the  speculative  reason  would  not  be  offended 
by  any  incomprehensible  mysteries  in  such  a 
religion,  and  might  accept  it  as  rational  and 
quite  intelligible.  But  the  revelation  could 
carry  no  conviction  whatever  to  the  heart  and 
conscience  of  man,  because,  however  suitable  it 
be  for  a  world  without  evil,  without  suffering, 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  "/<) 

without  sorrow,  without  death,  in  a  world  such 
as  ours  actually  is,  the  revelation  of  all  these 
moral  perfections  of  Divine  Being  could  give 
to  the  spirit  of  man  no  light  or  life  whatever, 
but  could  merely  intensify  the  darkness  of  death. 
Such  an  idea  of  God  would  be  to  us  no 
revelation  at  all  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word. 
But  the  idea  of  a  God  who  has  taken  our  nature 
into  Himself,  in  order  to  feel  for  us  in  all  our 
sufferings  and  to  bear  them  with  us,  is  a  revela- 
tion indeed.  It  is  the  moral  and  spiritual  solu- 
tion, and  the  only  solution,  of  the  mysterious 
problem  of  a  world  full  of  evil,  sorrow,  and 
death.  It  may  be  incomprehensible  to  the  in- 
tellect, but  it  is,  for  that  very  cause,  all  the  more 
certain  that  it  cannot  be  the  invention  of  that 
intellect,  when  to  it  the  idea  seems  an  impossi- 
bility. In  a  different  sense  from  that  in  which 
the  sturdy  advocate  of  orthodoxy  may  have 
used  the  v/ords,  we  may  truly  say :  Credo  quia 
impossibile  est. 

And  it  must  be  observed, — and  this  is  one 
great  advantage  of  regarding  and  expounding 
Christianity  from  the  stand-point  of  the  Being  of 
God  as  Love, — that  we  thus  see  how  essential 
to  redemption  being  an  exponent  of  that  love, 
is  the  true  and  eternal  Sonship  of  Christ.     For 


So  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

it  is  the  fact  that  God  gave  His  own  Son  to 
suffer  and  die  for  us,  that  alone  proves  the  love 
of  God  in  redeeming  us.  If  our  Redeemer  had 
been  the  most  exalted  of  created  intelligences, 
nay,  even  one  who  might  be  in  some  sense 
divine, — His  suffering  for  us,  and  His  sympathy 
with  us  through  suffering,  would  indeed  have 
been  a  convincing  proof  of  His  own  love,  but 
they  would  have  been  no  manifestation  at  all  to 
us  of  the  one  God  over  all,  as  the  God  in  whom 
we  might  trust  with  confidence,  unless  He  w^ere 
really  one  God  with  the  Father.  It  is  evident, 
therefore,  that  a  belief  in  the  true  divinity  of 
Christ  is  of  the  very  essence  of  Christianity; 
because  otherwise  it  is  no  revelation  of  the 
Being  of  God  Himself  as  Love.  Every  doctrine 
short  of  that  catholic  faith  which  is  confessed  by 
Christ's  Church,  is  found,  when  tried  by  the 
science  of  theology  of  which  the  fundamental 
principle  is  the  moral  Being  of  God,  to  be 
wholly  destitute  of  the  moral  and  spiritual 
power  of  Christianity  itself. 

12.  And,  further,  when  we  examine  it,  we 
find  that  this  is  also  the  very  gist  of  the  witness 
that  Christianity  bears  to  itself  when  it  exhibits 
its  own  characteristic  features  in  the  lives  of 
Christ's  disciples,  as  our  Lord  prayed  that  it 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  8 1 

might.  For  the  power  of  the  faith  of  Christ  on 
those  that  believe  is  derived  from  the  revelation 
of  the  love  of  God  in  Christ,  as  self-sacrificing 
love ;  love  that  does  not  expend  itself  in  senti- 
ments and  feelings,  but  is  a  real  sacrifice  of  self,  1 
even  unto  death,  to  fulfil  its  ends.  "  Hereby," 
St.  John  says,  "know  we  love,  because  he  laid 
down  his  life  for  us  :  and  we  ought  to  lay  down 
our  lives  for  the  brethren.  But  whoso  hath  this 
world's  goods  and  seeth  his  brother  have  need, 
and  shutteth  up  his  compassion  from  him,  how 
dwelleth  the  love  of  God  in  him  ?  My  little 
children,  let  us  not  love  in  word,  neither  in 
tongue,  but  in  deed  and  truth.  Hereby  shall 
we  know  that  we  are  of  the  truth  and  shall 
assure  our  heart  before  him,"  Such  demands 
on  Christians  for  a  life  of  self-denying  and  self- 
sacrificing  love  may  (as  experience  proves  too 
often  is  the  case)  fail  to  produce  this  effect  on 
individuals ;  but,  at  all  events,  they  prove  what 
Christianity  itself  means,  and  what  are  the 
legitimate  fruits  of  the  religion  when  its  real 
spirit  is  apprehended.  The  central  idea  of  the 
religion  is  God,  as  one  whose  love  for  man 
has  manifested  itself  in  a  life  of  practical  sym- 
pathy with  him  in  all  the  trials  and  temptations 
to  which  humanity  is  subject.    It  proclaims  that 


82  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

it  is  not  only  the  duty  of  Christians  to  follow  in 
this  respect  the  example  of  their  Divine  Master, 
but  that,  if  they  truly  believe  in  this  manifesta- 
tion of  love  for  man,  they  must  be  animated  by 
the  same  spirit  of  love,  without  which  all  their 
knowledge  and  spiritual  attainments  are  worth- 
less. And  so  fully  Is  this  spirit  of  practical 
sympathy  for  man  the  distinguishing  spirit  of 
real  Christianity,  that,  in  the  Day  of  Judgment, 
the  one  and  the  sure  test  of  acceptance  with 
God  as  true  disciples  of  His  Son,  is  represented 
to  be  their  having  shown  such  sympathy  for 
their  suffering  and  afflicted  fellow-men ;  in  all 
whom  they  could  not  fail,  if  they  were  Christ's 
disciples  Indeed,  to  have  recognized  those  whom 
their  Lord  redeemed.  Or,  as  the  Apostle  John 
says :  "  He  that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he 
hath  seen,  how  can  he  love  God  whom  he  hath 
not  seen?" 

13.  It  will,  however,  be  necessary  to  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  argument,  as  to  the  witness, 
which  Christianity  bears  to  itself  as  the  expo- 
nent of  the  truth  that  God  is  Love,  to  consider 
some  points  more  carefully.  This  view  of  Chris- 
tianity, as  spiritually  and  vitally  connected  with 
the  Redeemer's  work  of  love  for  sinful  and  suf- 
fering man,  is  distinctly  exhibited  in  the  ele- 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  83 

mentary  constitution  of  the  Church,  or  Christian 
Society,  which  was  ordained  by  Jesus  Christ 
Himself.  Nothing  is  more  emphatically  affirmed 
in  Holy  Scripture  than  that  the  propitiation 
made  for  sin  being  for  the  whole  world, — Christ's 
ministers  are  sent  to  proclaim  this  gospel  of 
salvation  to  all  nations,  and  administer  to  all 
who  are  sufficiently  instructed  and  willing  to 
receive  it,  the  sacrament  of  their  adoption  into 
the  family  of  God  on  earth.  But  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  the  rite  of  baptism,  ordained  by 
Christ,  unlike  the  initiatory  rites  of  other  relig- 
ions, "  is  not  only  a  sign  of  profession  and  mark 
of  difference,  whereby  Christian  men  are  dis- 
cerned from  others  that  are  not  Christians,"  but, 
much  more,  it  is  "  an  outward  and  visible  sign 
of  an  inward  and  spiritual  grace  given  unto  us, 
as  a  means  whereby  we  receive  the  same,  and 
a  pledge  to  assure  us  thereof "  ;  the  grace 
or  gift  of  God,  in  the  case  of  baptism,  being  "a 
death  unto  sin  and  a  new  birth  unto  righteous- 
ness." Thus  St.  Paul  ^°  speaks  of  our  baptism 
as  being-  "  into  the  death  of  Christ "  so  that  we 
are  "  buried  with  him  through  baptism  into 
death  "  ;  that  like  as  Christ  was  raised  from  the 
dead  through  the  glory  of  the   Father,  so  we 

""  Rom.  VI.  3,  4. 


84  BEDELL  lectures: 

also  might  walk  in  newness  of  life."  And 
this  mystical  signification  of  baptism  explains,  so 
far  as  it  is  capable  of  explanation,  how  the  humi- 
liation and  death  of  the  Divine  Redeemer  on 
behalf  of  man  can  become,  really,  and  not  by 
a  mere  fiction  of  imputation,  the  atonement  for 
sin,  and  justification  before  God,  for  every  one 
who  believes  on  Christ.  Because  faith  in  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ's  death,  by  which  God  has  con- 
demned sin  in  the  flesh,^'  and  into  which  he  is 
baptized,  spiritually  identifies  him  with  Christ  in 
that  death  ;  as  St.  Paul  says  again  :^^  "I  have 
been  crucified  with  Christ ;  yet  I  live,  and  yet 
no  loneer  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me  ;  and  that 
life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  in  faith, 
the  faith  which  is  in  the  Son  of  God  who  loved 
me  and  gave  himself  for  me."  But  it  must  be 
observed  that  the  language  of  St.  Paul  here  and 
elsewhere  shows  that  this  fellowship  with  Christ 
in  His  death  which  is  necessary  in  order  to 
make  us  partakers  of  the  benefits  of  His  propiti- 
ation, must  be  no  imagination  of  an  excited 
hr2Sx\,\iM\.  2^  spiritual  reality ;  one  which  trans- 
forms our  spiritual  being,  and  pervades  our  life 
with  the  spirit  of  Him  who  lived  and  died  for 
the  sins  of  the  whole  world.     All  the  personal 

"Rom.  VIII.  3-1 1.  "Gal.  II.  20. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  85 

trials  and  chastisements  of  him  who  thus  be- 
lieves are  spiritually  associated,  through  this 
faith,  with  Christ's  own  sufferings.  Such  an  one 
the  apostle  describes ^^  as  "always  bearing 
about  in  the  body  the  dying  of  Jesus^  that  the 
life  also  of  Jesus  maybe  manifested  in  our  mor- 
tal body."  True,  visible  Christianity,  therefore, 
is  nothing  else  than  the  manifestation  before 
men  of  the  Divine  Redeemer's  own  work  of 
love  for  man.  Christianity,  far  from  claiming 
for  all  that  profess  its  doctrines,  blessings  su- 
perior to  others  in  the  life  to  come,  on  the  con- 
trary distinctly  and  most  emphatically  teaches,  as 
a  fundamental  doctrine,  that  the  benefits  of  re- 
demption are  possessed  only  by  such  as  are  in 
spirit  identified  with  the  Redeemer  Himself.^* 
It  cannot,  therefore,  be  argued  that  Christianity 
does  not  give,  in  its  outward  and  visible  form,  as 
well  as  by  its  doctrines,  a  patent  and  universally 
intelliQ^ible  witness  to  the  world  of  its  true  char- 
acter,  as  the  manifestation  of  the  love  of  God 
for  mankind,  which  Christians  are  bound  them- 
selves to  exhibit  in  a  life  of  self-denial  and  self- 

"  II.  Cor.  IV.  10. 

'■'  This  fundamental  truth  is  no  less  clearly  set  forth  in  the  other 
divinely  ordained  Sacrament  of  the  Gospel,  which  is  commanded  to 
be  observed  by  all  Christians,  for  in  this  we  continually  have  com.- 
munion  with  the  sacrifice  of  Christ's  Death. 


86  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

sacrifice  for  other  men.  And,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  its  ordinances  it  proclaims  that  Chris- 
tians are  not  left  to  themselves  to  fulfil,  by  their 
own  natural  and  unaided  powers,  these  respon- 
sibilities to  which  they  are  pledged,  for  the 
promise  of  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  one  God 
with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  is  sealed  to  each 
one  in  these  ordinances,  to  enable  him  to  fulfil 
the  duties  which  are  required  of  him,  the  duties 
being  those  which  are  thus  summed  up :  "Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart 
and  soul  and  mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self" 

14.  It  is  certain,  therefore,  that  Christianity 
reveals  God  as  having,  in  His  infinite  love  for 
man.  done  all  that  divine  love  can  do,  not  only 
to  remedy,  through  sending  His  own  Son,  the 
sorrows  and  evils  with  which  this  world  is  filled, 
but,  further,  to  make  all  that  profess  and  call  them- 
selves Christians  workers  with  Christ  by  a  life 
of  self-denying  sympathy  for  suffering  man.  I 
s'a.y  all  tJiat  love  can  do ;  not  because  there  are 
any  limits  to  that  love,  but  omnipotence  itself 
cannot  do  that  which  is  a  self-contradiction. 
Divine  love,  though  infinite  and  almighty,  could 
not  fulfil  its  purposes  toward  man,  that  is,  re- 
store God's  image  and  likeness  in  him,  except 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  87 

he  were  one  in  whom  such  image  and  likeness 
is  possible  ;  which  would  be  contradicted  if  we 
should  deny  the  reality  of  the  will  in  man.     It 
is   certain ^s   that   any  view  of  the  will  which 
represents   it   as  incapable  of  resisting   God's 
grace,  makes  the  mechanical  relation  of  cause 
and  effect  the  one  law  of  the  whole  universe, 
and  subjects  to  its  mechanism  the  moral  world 
no  less  than  the  physical,  so  that  it  must  follow, 
from  such  a  view,  that  the  whole  of  God's  crea- 
tion, visible  and  invisible,  is  unspiritual.     For 
the  reality  of  will,  and  therefore  of  responsi- 
bility, alone  distinguishes  that  which  is  natural 
from   that  which   is   spiritual.     The   theology, 
therefore,  which  makes  the  will  of  man  a  nullity 
does,  equally  with  materialism  itself,  deny  the 
existence  of  spirit,  and  therefore  the  possibility 
of  any  likeness  to  God  in  man.     The  power  of  a 
finite  and  created  spirit  to  refuse  to  receive  the 
grace  of  Almighty  God  is,  no  doubt,  a  profound 
mystery ;  yet  it  is  a  mystery  involved  in  the 
very  existence  of  spirit,— indeed,  in  every  idea 
of  morality  and  religion,  for  the  positive  cannot 
exist  without  the   possibility  of  the   negative. 
Christianity  certainly  does  not  profess  to  be  a 
religion  which  denies  that  in  man  which  alone 
makes  morality  and  religion  possible. 

"  Coleridge,  Aids  to  Reflection. 


88  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

1 5.  Let  us  consider,  then,  what  is  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  on  this  subject  ?  It  is  expressed 
in  two  opposite  truths,  which,  though  finite  reason 
cannot  reconcile  them  intellectually,  are  morally 
consistent.  The  one  is,  that  all  that  is  spir- 
itually good,  every  good  desire,  as  well  as  the 
power  to  do  that  which  is  good,  must  be  of  the 
Spirit  of  God.  The  other,  that  to  the  operation 
of  the  Spirit  in  us  the  concurrence  of  our  own 
will  is  necessary.  It  was  observed  before,^^  in 
regard  to  the  fellowship  of  God's  Spirit  with 
man's  spirit  in  prayer,  that  true  prayer  is  both 
our  own  prayer  and  yet,  at  the  same  time,  the 
Spirit's  intercession  in  us.  Even  so,  St  Paul 
says,  on  the  one  hand:  "To  will  is  present 
with  me,"  and  "  with  the  mind  /  myself  serve 
the  law  of  God";  on  the  other,  no  less  dis- 
tinctly :  "  Yet  not  I,  but  the  grace  of  God  that 
is  in  me."  And,  therefore,  our  Lord's  words 
to  the  Jews  at  one  time  :  *'  Ye  will  not  come  to 
me  that  ye  may  have  life";  at  another:  "No 
man  can  come  to  me,  except  the  Father  which 
hath  sent  me  draw  him,"  far  from  being  contra- 
dictory one  of  the  other,  are  only  opposite 
aspects  of  the  self-same  truth.  For,  as  those  to 
whom  Christ  is   made  manifest  are  prevented 

"  Lect.  II.  §  13. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  89 

from  coming  to  Him  solely  by  their  own  will, 
so  also  none  can  spiritually  come  to  Christ  and 
be  made  partakers  of  His  salvation,  but  those 
who  are  drawn  not  only  by  the  revelation  of 
His  love  in  the  Gospel  of  His  Son,  but  also  by 
His  Spirit  of  Love  in  their  hearts,  by  whom 
God  "  worketh  in  us  both  to  will  and  to  do  of 
his  good  pleasure." 

16.  The  relation  of  the  human  will  to  the 
work  of  the  infinite  and  almighty  Spirit  of  God 
in  us  is  without  doubt  that  which  to  the  intel- 
lect is  incomprehensible,  as  are  the  doctrines  of 
the  Trinity,  the  Incarnation,  and  the  Atone- 
ment. Yet  the  conscience  has  no  difficulty  in 
recognizing  the  two  opposite  truths  as  funda- 
mental and  necessary  principles,  evident  by 
their  own  light.  So  that  whereinsoever  Chris- 
tianity has  produced  the  results  which  are  the 
legitimate  and  proper  fruits  of  this  revelation  of 
divine  love,  such  results  have  been  due  to  the 
Spirit  of  God  ;  on  the  other  hand,  whereinso- 
ever it  has  failed  to  produce  such  fruits,  this  has 
been  due  solely  to  man,  and  cannot  be  laid  to 
the  charge  of  Christianity  itself.  No  doubt  it 
may  often  be  due  to  misrepresentations  of 
Christianity  by  Christians  themselves,  who,  in- 
stead of  teaching  the  Gospel  of  Christ  as  the 


90  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

manifestation  of  God's  love,  have  too  often 
obscured  and  perverted  it  by  false  theology  in 
one  direction  or  the  other,  teaching  instead  of 
divine  truth  the  doctrines  of  men.  But  Chris- 
tianity must  not  be  held  responsible  for  those 
things  which  do  not  in  any  true  sense  belong  to 
it.  The  witness  which  it  bears  to  itself  as  the 
revelation  that  God  is  Love  is  undoubtedly 
most  apparent  to  the  world,  as  was  said  at  the 
commencement  of  these  Lectures,  when  its 
characteristic  features  are  exhibited  in  the  lives 
of  those  who  call  themselves  disciples  of  Christ ; 
but,  as  has  been  shown,  it  is  none  the  less  certain 
from  the  revelation  itself,  even  when  professing 
Christians  fail  to  be  what  their  own  religion 
demands  that  they  should  be — nay,  what  they 
could  not  fail  to  be  if  they  sincerely  believed  it. 
For  the  truth  of  God  is  no  less  certain,  though 
men  do  not  believe.  And  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  Christ  Himself  foretold  that  "  the 
kingdom  of  heaven "  on  earth  would  be  a 
field  in  w^hich  tares  would  grow  up  with  the 
good  seed,  and  that  they  would  not  be  sepa- 
rated until  the  time  for  judgment  should  come. 
Instead  of  anticipating  that  His  own  example  of 
love  would  be  universally  followed  by  those 
who  should  call  themselves  His  disciples,  He 


R  T.  RE  V.  HENR  V  CO  TTERILL,  D.D.  9 1 

foretells  divisions,  strifes,  and  false  doctrines 
amongst  them  ;  and,  as  the  ultimate  result  of 
all,  that  "  because  iniquity  shall  be  multiplied, 
the  love  of  the  many  shall  wax  cold."  The 
Divine  Author  of  our  salvation  knew  before- 
hand that  however  clearly  the  love  of  God 
might  be  revealed,  and  however  freely  the 
Spirit  of  His  grace  might  be  given,  whatever 
divine  love  might  do  for  man,  it  could  not  per- 
force constrain  him,  against  His  own  will,  to 
love  God  even  though  He  is  Love ;  for  love 
must  be,  in  the  nature  of  things,  spontaneous. 

17.  It  must  be  further  observed,  in  regard  to 
the  witness  which  Christianity  bears  to  itself  in 
the  lives  of  those  who  reflect  in  themselves  its 
true  characteristics,  that  not  only  is  this  witness 
actually  defective,  because  of  the  resistance  of 
man's  own  will  to  the  grace  of  God  ;  but  also, 
as  I  noticed  in  my  first  Lecture,^^  ti-i^t,  even 
when  there  is  in  Christians  a  genuine  represen- 
tation of  the  love  of  God,  and  of  the  principles 
of  the  Gospel  in  which  that  love  is  manifested, 
the  witness  is  often  misapprehended  by  those 
who  do  not  appreciate  or  understand  those 
principles.  For  example,  those  who  are  by 
faith  spiritually  united   with    Christ   and   like- 

•^  See  Lecture  T.  §  3. 


92  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

minded  with  Him,  for  the  very  reason  that  they 
dwell  in  that  Love  which  God  is,  must  "  hate 
with  a  perfect  hatred  "  the  evil  and  sin  which  is 
the  contradiction  of  love,  even  as  God  hates  it. 
And  all  those  errors  and  false  doctrines  which 
directly  or  implicitly  deny  God's  manifestation 
of  His  love  in  His  Son  Jesus  Christ,  will  excite 
in  those  v/ho  truly  believe  in  Christ  hostility 
against  such  doctrines,  and  jealousy  of  those 
that  teach  them, — not  because  they  are  wanting 
in  love,  but  for  the  very  reason  of  the  fervor 
and  reality  of  their  love  ;  even  as  St.  John  bids 
Christians,  with  regard  to  any  one  who  does  not 
bring  the  true  teaching  of  Christ,  not  to  receive 
him  into  their  house,  neither  wish  him  God- 
speed.^^  There  is,  no  doubt,  a  false  zeal  for  God, 
which  is  not  according  either  to  knowledge 
or  to  love  ;  but  to  the  world  in  general,  even 
the  zeal  of  the  Apostle  of  Love  appears  unchari- 
table. And  so  indeed  it  would  be,  were  not 
the  doctrine  of  "■  the  Father  and  the  Son," 
which  these  deceivers  did  not  teach,  necessary 
to  the  faith  that "  God  is  Love."  We  cannot 
expect  others  to  recognize  the  charity  of  such 
zeal,  until  they  appreciate  the  force  of  this  fun- 
damental principle  of  Christian  faith  and  doc- 

'°  2  John,  10,  II. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTER  ILL,  D.D.  93 

trine.  On  the  other  hand,  the  conduct  of 
sincere  and  earnest  Christians  is  Hable  to  be 
misunderstood,  from  the  world's  ignorance  of 
the  character  of  that  love  of  God,  in  regard  of 
which  God's  servants  are  called  to  be  followers 
of  Him,  as  His  dear  children.  For  while  it  is 
revealed  that  God  loved  {}]yaTtrjae)  the  world 
though  at  enmity  with  Him,  the  other  word 
(<?zAfz>'),  which  expresses  the  tenderer  and 
more  intimate  affection,  is  never  used  except  of 
God's  love  for  Jesus  Christ,  His  only  begotten 
Son,  and  for  those  who,  by  faith  on  Him,  are 
reconciled  to  God.^^  Even  thus,  those  who  are 
like-minded  with  Christ  have  a  special  affection 
for  those  who  are  the  friends  of  God,  different 
from  that  with  which  they  regard  other  men.  The 
former  is  distinguished  by  the  word  ^iXadeXqjia, 
"brotherly  love,"  the  latter  by  ayocTt?].  And 
while  the  first-fruits  of  the  spirit  is  "  love " 
itself, ''°  because  without  it  all  religion  is  vain, 
yet  St.  Peter  ^^  reminds  us  that  in  the  develop- 
ment and  manifestation  of  the  Christian  charac- 
ter, love  in  its  perfection  is  the  highest  grace, 
and  one  which  "  brotherly  love  "  must  precede. 
So  that  oftentimes  "  brotherly  love  "    is  more 

•'  St.  John  XVI.  27.  '"  Gal.  V.  22. 

"  2  Peter  I.  7. 


94  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

manifest  in  the  character  of  Christians  than  that 
love  to  man  as  man,  which  should  animate 
them  to  follow  the  example  of  Christ  in  a  life  of 
self-denying  love  for  all  without  exception  or 
distinction.  And  too  often  also  this  brotherly- 
love  takes  the  form  of  exclusiveness  and  par- 
tiality, and  specially  of  a  tendency  to  judge 
others,  v/hich  is  expressly  forbidden  by  Christ 
Himself.  Indeed,  the  world  in  general  consid- 
ers the  "  brotherly  love  "  which  exists  among 
Christians, — and  alas !  too  often  not  without 
reason, — as  mere  party  spirit  and  the  unity  of 
those  who  hold  the  same  opinions.  And  it  is 
important  to  observe,  in  connection  with  this, 
that  in  our  Lord's  prayer  for  the  unity  of  Chris- 
tians as  a  proof  to  the  world  of  His  own  divine 
mission,  the  emphasis  is  laid  on  this  being  a 
universal  and  not  a  partial  unity  ;  "  that  they 
all  may  be  one,  even  as  thou.  Father,  art  in 
me,  and  I  in  thee."  For,  in  truth,  the  divisions 
and  strifes  among  even  real  Christians,  which 
are  manifest  to  all  men,  do  more,  in  the  present 
day  especially,  to  obscure  the  witness  of  Chris- 
tianity to  itself,  than  all  the  "  brotherly  love  " 
in  the  several  sects  into  which  Christianity  is 
unhappily  divided  can  do  to  confirm  it.  But 
that   unity  of  all   that  believe  in  one  spiritual 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL.  D.D.  95 

body,  for  which  our  Blessed  Lord  prayed, — or  as 
St  Paul  describes  it  "  one  body  and  one  spirit," 
"  holding  the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of 
peace," — cannot  be  the  result  of  merely  out- 
ward ties  or  natural  principles,  which,  as  human 
experience  abundantly  proves,  are  not  powerful 
enough  to  resist  the  influences  which  are  ever 
tending,  in  this  sinful  world,  to  mar  the  beauti- 
ful ideal  of  unity  which  has  God's  special  prom- 
ise. The  only  power  that  can  in  any  degree 
make  that  ideal  a  reality  before  the  world  is  the 
gravitating  power  of  genuine,  vigorous  love  to 
God  and  to  Jesus  Christ  as  the  one  Head  of 
His  Universal  Church  ;  which,  even  if  the  di- 
vine order  be  disturbed  for  a  time,  will  in  due 
time  restore  it.  Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  in 
proportion  as  Christianity  is  understood  by 
Christians  as  the  revelation  of  the  love  of  God, 
and  not  a  mere  system  of  doctrines,  the  prayer 
of  our  Divine  Lord  will  be  more  and  more  ful- 
filled ? 


After  an  examination,  in  these  Lectures,  of 
Christian  faith  and  doctrine  as  the  exponent  and 
manifestation  of  the  fundamental  law  of  God's 
moral  Being,  a  few  remarks  in  conclusion  will 
be  sufficient  reply  to  some  popular  objections 


96  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

against  Christianity  as  inconsistent  with  divine 
love. 

I.  Of  these,  perhaps  the  most  common  among 
men  of  the  world  in  general  is  its  exclusive- 
ness  ;  that  as  the  Apostle  Peter  said  to  the 
Jews  :  "  In  none  other,"  except  Jesus  Christ, 
"  is  there  salvation  ;  for  neither  is  there  any 
other  name  under  heaven  that  is  given  among 
men  wherein  we  must  be  saved."  ^^  This,  in- 
deed, is  the  teaching  of  Christ  Himself  and  of 
the  New  Testament  generally,  so  that  it  is  not 
without  reason  that  in  the  XVIIIth  Article  of 
Religion  of  the  Church  of  England  the  opinion 
is  condemned  as  unchristian  :  "  That  every  man 
shall  be  saved  by  the  law  or  sect  which  he  pro- 
fesseth,  so  that  he  be  diligent  to  frame  his  life 
according  to  that  law  and  the  light  of  nature." 
But,  first  of  all,  if  we  realize  the  infinite  magni- 
tude of  the  divine  sacrifice  by  which  mankind 
has  been  redeemed  from  sin  and  death,  the  con- 
clusion is  unavoidable,  that  such  a  sacrifice  would 
not  have  been  made  had  any  other  method  been 
sufficient  without  it.  Redemption  through  the 
incarnation  and  death  of  the  only  begotten  Son 
of  God  is,  in  the  nature  of  things,  a  unique  act ; 

"Acts  IV.  12  ;  St.  Mark  XVI.  16  ;  St.  John  III.  18-36  ;    i  Tim. 

n.  4,  5. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  9/ 

and  Christianity  is,  therefore,  of  necessity,  ex- 
clusive, if  it  is  true.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
blessings  which  have  been  procured  for  man 
through  the  Son  of  God  taking  into  himself  our 
humanity,  and  bearing  the  sins  and  sorrows  of  i 
mankind,  and  which  can  only  be  made  our  own 
(as  we  have  seen)"  through  that  faith  which  in 
spirit  identifies  us  with  the  Redeemer's  work  ; 
blessings  which  Holy  Scripture  describes  as 
being  heirs  of  God  and  joint  heirs  with  Christ, 
partakers  of  divine  glory  and  joy,  seated  with 
Christ  on  His  throne,  as  He  is  seated  with  His 
Father  on  His  throne,  are  such  as  it  is  also  im- 
possible, in  the  nature  of  things,  that  any  one 
of  God's  creatures  (much  more  one  that  is  sin- 
ful and  fallen)  could  ever  obtain,  except  through 
such  a  method  as  the  incarnation  and  cross  of 
Christ.  So  that  the  redemption,  as  regards 
both  the  work  itself  and  its  results  to  man,  alto- 
gether is  unique,  and,  on  that  account,  also  ex- 
clusive ;  for  the  same  reason  as  the  unity  of 
the  Godhead  is  exclusive  of  a  second  God. 
But  it  must  be  remembered  that  Holy  Scripture 
says  nothing  definitely  as  to  the  future  state  of 
those  who  have  had  no  knowledge  in  this  life 
of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.     It  only  assures  us,  by 

"Lect.  III.  §  13. 


98  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

all  its  teaching,  both  in  the  Old  Testament  and 
in  the  New/-*  that  the  Judge  of  all  the  Earth  will 
be  both  just  to  all  without  exception  and  without 
partiality,  and  at  the  same  time  merciful  and 
compassionate  beyond  all  that  our  imaginations 
can  conceive.  It  contains  also  some  hints  as  to 
the  Gospel  being  "  preached  even  to  the  dead,"  " 
which,  though  they  give  us  no  encouragement 
to  speculate  on  a  subject  lying  outside  the  work 
of  God  which  we  are  called  to  fulfil  in  this 
world,  are  nevertheless  sufficient  to  remind  us 
that  the  extent  of  the  redeeming  love  of  God 
in  Christ  infinitely  exceeds  both  our  knowledge 
and  the  sphere  of  our  understanding. 

II.  Another  objection  to  Christianity,  or 
rather  against  one  partial  aspect  of  it,  is  that  it 
makes  God's  love  not  universal,  but  special  and 
partial,  and  therefore  unjust.  I  have  referred 
to  this  in  Lecture  I.,  but  some  further  remarks 
are  necessary.  For  undoubtedly  our  Lord 
Himself  speaks  of  His  people  as  "given  to 
him  by  the  Father  out  of  the  world,"  and  as 
not  having  themselves  chosen  Him,  but  being 
chosen  by  Him.  And  St.  Paul^^  teaches  Chris- 
tians that  "  God  chose  us  in  Christ  before  the 

'*  See  especially  Rom.  II.  6-16. 
"  I  Pet.  IV.  6,  and  III.  19,  20.  •"  Ephes.  I.  4,  5. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  99 

foundation  of  the  world,  that  we  should  be  holy, 
and  without  blemish  before  him  in  love  ;  havine 
foreordained  us  unto  adoption  as  sons  through 
Jesus  Christ  unto  himself,  according  to  the 
good  pleasure  of  his  will."  Of  the  truth  that 
the  supremacy  of  the  will  of  God  does  not  mean 
the  disannulling  of  our  own  will,  but  that  all 
religion  implies  that  the  finite  will  is  no  less  a 
reality  than  the  divine,  I  have  already  spoken. 
But  there  is  a  further  consideration  which  must 
be  taken  into  account,  in  reference  to  the  lan- 
guage of  Holy  Scripture  on  this  profound  and,  to 
a  finite  mind,  necessarily  incomprehensible  sub- 
ject. We  must  always  bear  in  mind  that  God, 
who  (to  use  the  language  of  the  prophet  Isaiah), 
"  inhabiteth  eternity,"  sees  every  man,  not  as 
we  finite  beings  see  him,  but  in  the  eventualities 
of  the  future  no  less  clearly  than  in  the  actuali- 
ties of  the  past  and  the  present.  It  is  not 
merely  that  the  future  is  foreseen,  but  to  that 
mind  to  which  all  is  present,  and  in  which  the 
succession  of  time  has  not  the  kind  of  existence 
that  it  has  in  the  finite  mind,  the  first  germ  and 
the  matured  fruit  are  seen  at  once,  one  in  the 
other.  This  religious  doctrine  of  the  divine 
foreknowledge  is  of  course  wholly  beyond  our 
understanding,  yet  it  is  a  truth  which  no  one 


lOO  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

who  believes  in  the  existence  of  an'  infinite  and 
eternal  God  can  question,  and  it  is  totally  dif- 
ferent from  necessitarianism  or  fatalism  ;  nor 
does  the  will  of  God  from  all  eternity,  accord- 
ing to  His  foreknowledge,  that  we  should  be 
saved  from  sin  and  made  partakers  of  His 
glory,  in  the  least  interfere  with  the  action  of 
our  own  will.  Morally  and  spiritually,  this  truth 
of  our  election  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world  by  the  everlasting  love  of  God,  is  an  un- 
speakable comfort  and  source  of  strength  to 
those  who  believe  on  Christ,  "  both  because  it 
doth  greatly  establish  and  confirm  their  hope  of 
eternal  salvation  to  be  enjoyed  through  Christ, 
and  also  because  it  doth  fervently  kindle  their 
love  toward  God."  "  Intellectually,  the  doctrine 
is  "  unthinkable,"  because  infinite  beine  itself 
is  unthinkable  ;  but  no  man  in  his  senses  prac- 
tically believes  that  the  divine  foreknowledge 
of  future  events  makes  human  action  unneces- 
sary or  unprofitable.  The  truth  has  been,  no 
doubt,  both  perverted  and  abused  ;  yet  in  itself 
it  is  nothing  else  than  one  of  those  mysteries  of 
infinite  being  which  are  incomprehensible  by 
every  finite  mind  ;  and  the  particular  form 
which  it  assumes  in  Christianity,  as  election  by 

"  Article  XVII. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  lOI 

the  grace  of  God  from  all  eternity,  arises  en- 
tirely from  the  fundamental  principle  that  the 
Love  of  God  is  His  Being  and  therefore 
eternal. 

III.  Of  all  the  popular  objections  to  Christi- 
anity that  which  has  most  weight  with  many 
minds  is,  that  the  doctrine  of  everlasting  punish- 
ment in  another  life  seems  a  contradiction  of  the 
love  of  God.  But  we  have  found  in  our  exami- 
nation of  this  whole  subject  that  there  are  two 
conclusions  that  are  inevitable.  The  first  is, 
that  the  fundamental  principle  that  God  is  Love 
must  involve  also  the  opposite  that  His  hatred 
of  sin — the  contradiction  of  love — is  as  infinite 
as  God's  Being  itself  is.  His  infinite  love,  and 
His  infinite  holiness,  are  nothing  else  than  two 
opposite  aspects  of  the  same  eternal  and  al- 
mighty Being.  The  second  is  that  love,  which 
alone  is  spiritual  and  eternal  life,  cannot  be  pro- 
duced in  man,  even  by  omnipotence,  without 
the  concurrence  of  his  own  will.  And  if  the 
complete  manifestation  of  the  love  of  God  in 
giving  His  only  begotten  Son  as  a  propitiation 
for  our  sins  fails  to  conquer  the  rebellious  will, 
and  we  continue  ^^  in  a  state  of  wilful  sin,  "after 

"  Heb.  X.  26,  'EKOVffico?  afiapravovTcov  rf^a)v  jAera  ro 
Xa/3eiv  ttjv  STtiyvcoffiv  zr/?  aXr/deia?.    "  Notice  the  present 


I02  BEDELL  LECTURES. 

we  have  received  the  knowledge  of  the  truth," 
there  remaineth  no  more  a  sacrifice  for  sins ; 
there  is  no  other  method  remaining  by  which  the 
soul  can  be  quickened  into  life  when  love  has 
failed.  In  this  passage  from  the  epistle,  to  which 
I  have  more  than  once  referred,  because  it  de- 
fines more  clearly  and  exactly  than  any  other  pas- 
sage in  Holy  Scripture  those  cases  which  are 
proved  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  divine  love, 
we  must  notice  that  it  is  assumed  that  the  man 
has  "received  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,"  and 
therefore  has  had  sufficient  trial  whether  he  will 
accept  the  love  of  God  or  will  refuse  it.  And 
the  word  here  used  for  knowledge  {aTiiyvooai?) 
implies  not  a  mere  historical  knowledge  of  the 
fact,  which  may  never  have- ;^  resented  to  the 
conscience  the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  sacrifice 
of  Christ;  but  it  assumes  the  "  actual  direction 
of  the  spirit  to  a  definite  object  and  a  real  grasp- 
ing" of  the  same."  ^  Such  are  the  cases  in  which 
both  apostolic  authority  and  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  Himself  declare  that  man  has  finally 
identified  himself  with  his  sin,  so  as  to  be  by  the 

not  the  aorist  participle.  It  is  not  of  an  act  or  of  any  number 
of  acts  of  sin  that  the  writer  is  speaking,  which  might  be  repented  of 
and  blotted  out  ;  but  of  a  state  of  sin,  in  which  a  man  is  found  when 
that  day  shall  come," — Alford. 

^'  Delitsch  quoted  by  Alford. 


RT.  REV.  HENRY  COTTERILL,  D.D.  IO3 

determination  of  his  own  will  h^yond,  the  reach 
of  infinite  love,  because  that  love  itself  has  be- 
come, through  his  wilful  rejection  of  the  light  of 
life  and  love  after  it  has  shined  upon  him,  the 
consuming  fire  of  divine  jealousy.    Who  they 
are  that  have  thus,  of  their  own  will,  chosen 
darkness  and  death  rather  than  light  and  life, 
God  alone  can  determine  In  that  day  when  the 
secrets  of  all  hearts  shall  be  made  known  be- 
bre  men  and  angels,  and  when  He  shall  judge 
e/ery  man  (as   St.  Paul  reminds  us  ^°)  on  the 
pinciples,  not  of  the  Law  by  which  all  are  alike 
ccidemned,  but  of  the  Gospel  which  reveals 
Gd  as    Infinite   Love.      In  the  assurance  of 
th£  infinitely  righteous  and  infinitely  powerful 
lov,  we  may  well  shut  up  all  inquiries  as  to  the 
etenal  future  of  other  men,  and  to  it  may  con- 
fidetly  entrust  our  own.     The  one  truth  that 
Gocis  Love,  not  only  when  rightly  understood, 
is  sen  to  be  the  source  of  all  the  doctrines  of 
Chri;ianity,  but  also,  if  continually  present  to 
our  lind,  will  teach  and  enable  us  to  apply 
every^hristian  doctrine  in  its  true  proportion 
and  rtition. 

»»  Rom.  II.  16. 


1883. 
FOUNDERS'  DAY 

AT 

Gambler. 


105 


FOUNDERS'    DAY. 


ORDER  OF  SERVICE 

FOR 

ALL   SAINTS'   DA  V, 

November  i,  1883. 


OFFICIA  TING  PERSONS. 


The  Te  Deum  . 
Ante-Communion 

The  Epistle    . 

The  Gospel 

The  Creed 

Founders'  Memorial 

doxology. 

Prayer  for  the  Institutions. 

Hymn  232  at  3D  Verse. 


.     Kenyon  College  Choir. 

Rev.  Edward  Benson,  A.M.,  Senior 
Professor,  Kenyon  College. 

Rev.  Abraham  Jaeger,  D.D.,  Pro- 
fessor, Theological  Seminary. 

Rev.  Cyrus  S.  Bates,  D.D.,  Pro- 
fessor,. Theological  Seminary. 

Rev.  Fleming  James,  D.D.,  Pro- 
fessor and  Pastor. 

Rt.  Rev.  G.  T.  BedeU,  D.D.,  of 
Ohio. 


The  Lecture 


f  Rt.  Rev.  Henry  Cotterill,  D.D.. 
■<  Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  Scotland. 
(      (Lecture  read  by  Pres't  Bodine.) 

Hymn  494. 

Offertory  for  Founders'  Scholarship. 

Matriculation  of  the  Theological  Seminary. 

Matriculation  of  Kenyon  College. 

Address   ......       The  Bishop  of  the  Diocese. 

(  The   Bishop,    the   President,   and 

/      the  Pastor. 


The  Holy  Communion 


107 


FOUNDERS'   DAY  AT  GAMBIER,  1883. 


We  remember  before  God  this  day  the  Founders  of 
these  Institutions  :  Philander  Chase,  the  first  Bishop 
of  Ohio,  clariim  et  venerabile  nomen,  whose  foresight,  zeal, 
unwearied  patience,  and  indomitable  energy  devised  these 
foundations,  and  established  them  temporarily  at  Worth- 
ington,  but  permanently  at  Gambier ;  he  was  the  Foun- 
der of  the  Theological  Seminar)^,  Kenyon  College,  and  of 
the  Grammar  School  ; — Charles  Pettit  McIlvaine, 
the  second  Bishop  of  Ohio,  rightly  known  as  the  second 
Founder  of  these  Institutions,  whose  decision  of  charac- 
ter and  self-devoted  labors  saved  them  at  two  distinct 
crises  of  difficulty  ;  he  builded  Bexley  Hall  for  the  use  of 
the  Theological  Seminary,  Ascension  Hall  for  the  use  of 
Kenyon  College,  Milnor  Hall  for  the  use  of  the  Grammar 
School,  and  he  completed  Rosse  Chapel  on  the  founda- 
tions laid  by  Bishop  Chase. 

We  remember  before  God  this  day  pious  and  generous 
persons,  contributors,  whose  gifts  enabled  the  Bishops  of 
Ohio  to  lay  those  foundations,  and  who  are  therefore  to 
be  named  among  the  Founders.  We  make  mention  only 
of  those  who  have  departed  to  be  with  Christ,  and  now 
rest  in  Paradise. 

109 


no  FOUNDERS'   DAY  AT  GAM  BIER, 

Among  the  many,  we  name  only  a  few  whose  gifts  are 
noticeable  because  of  the  influence  of  their  character  and 
position  : 

Henry  Clay,  whose  introduction  of  Bishop  Chase  to 
the  Admiral  Lord  Gambier,  of  England,  initiated  the 
movement  in  1823  ;  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury;  the 
Lord  Bishops  of  London,  Durham,  St.  Davids,  Chester, 
Lichfield ;  the  Deans  of  Canterbury  and  Salisbury ; 
Lords  Kenyon,  Gambier,  Bexley,  Sir  Thomas  Acland ; 
Reverend  Edward  Bickersteth,  Henry  Hoare,  Marriott, 
Pratt,  William  Wilberforce,  Thomas  Wiggin,  Thomas 
Bates  ;  the  Dowager  Countess  of  Rosse,  who  aided 
liberally  the  Chapel  which  afterward  bore  her  name ; 
Hannah  More,  who  also  bequeathed  a  Scholarship 
which  bears  her  name  ;  and  five  hundred  and  thirty 
others  whose  names  are  recorded  in  the  memorial  pre- 
pared by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bronson  at  the  order  of  the 
Trustees. 

We  remember  before  God  the  liberality  of  William 
Hogg,  from  whom  this  domain  was  purchased  under  the 
advice  of  Henry  B.  Curtis  and  Daniel  S.  Norton,  with  the 
consent  of  Henry  Clay  ;  the  grantor  contributing  one 
fourth  of  its  market  value. 

In  1838,  John  Quincy  Adams,  the  President  of  the 
United  States  ;  Mrs.  Sigourney ;  Arthur  Tappan,  who 
originated  the  Milnor  Professorship  ;  St.  George's 
Church,  New  York,  which  established  a  Scholarship ; 
Rev.  Drs.  Milnor,  Tyng,  Bedell,  Sparrow,  Keith,  Rev.  I, 


FOUNDERS'  DAY  AT  GAM  BIER.  Ill 

Morse,  Dudley  Chase,  Albert  Barnes,  John  Trimble, 
William  Jay,  Abbott  and  Amos  Lawrence,  Peter  Stuy- 
vesant,  Richard  Varick,  and  nine  hundred  and  ninety 
others  whose  names  are  recorded. 

These  were  the  first  Founders  of  these  Institutions. 

Among  those  who  aided  Bishop  Mcllvaine  we  men- 
tion before  God  to-day, — in  1832,  Bishop  White,  Rev. 
Manton  Eastburn  and  the  Ascension  Church,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Cutler  and  St.  Ann's  Church,  Brooklyn,  the  Rev. 
Drs.  Muhlenberg  and  Wing,  Peter  A.  Jay,  James  Len- 
nox, Robert  Minturn,  Henry  Codman,  Robert  Carter, 
Matthew  Clarkson,  Charles  Hoyt,  I.  N.  Whiting,  and 
four  hundred  and  sixty  others  whose  names  are  re- 
corded. 

And  in  1835,  in  England,  Daniel  Wilson,  Bishop  of 
Calcutta ;  the  Bishops  of  London,  Winchester,  Salis- 
bury, and  Lichfield  ;  the  Duchess  of  Kent,  the  Duch- 
ess of  Gloucester,  the  Princess  Augusta,  the  Duchess 
of  Beaufort,  the  Earl  of  Carnarvon,  Rev.  Thomas 
Hartwell  Home,  Charles  Brydges,  John  Fox,  Jerram, 
Jowett,  Baptist  Noel,  Dr.  Plumtre,  Charles  Simeon, 
Henry  Thornton,  Sir  Thomas  Baring,  Henry  Roberts, 
architect,  who  gave  the  plan  and  working  model  for 
Bexley  Hall  ;  with  four  hundred  and  eighty-three  others 
whose  names  are  recorded. 

These  are  the  second  Founders  of  these  Institutions. 

We  mention  before  God  to-day  the  gifts  of  Bishop 
Gadsden,  Bishop  Johns,  Colonel  Pendleton,  John  Kil- 


112  FOUNDERS'   DAY  AT  GAMBIER. 

gour,  the  Kinneys,  Dr.  Doddridge,  Charles  D.  Betts, 
who  founded  a  fund  for  the  purchase  of  theological 
books  ;  Rev.  C.  C.  Pinkney,  who  contributed  for  fit- 
ting up  a  Laboratory ;  J.  D.  Wolfe,  who  contributed  to 
found  the  Lorillard  and  Wolfe  Professorships ;  John 
Johns,  M.D.,  of  Baltimore,  who  left  a  valuable  legacy 
to  the  Institutions  ;  Stewart  Brown,  William  H.  Aspin- 
wall,  and  others  who  contributed  to  the  building  of 
Ascension  Hall  ;  Thomas  H.  Powers,  Lewis  S.  Ashurst, 
John  Bohlen  and  sister,  and  others  who  founded 
a  Professorship  in  memory  of  the  late  Dr.  Bedell  of 
Philadelphia ;  Mrs.  Spencer,  Mrs.  Lewis,  who  partly 
founded  a  Professorship,  Rev.  Dr.  Brooke  ;  Rev.  Messrs. 
Lounsberry  and  E.  A.  Strong,  whose  efforts  brought 
many  valuable  contributions  to  these  Institutions  ;  W. 
W.  Corcoran,  President  Andrews,  Rev.  Alfred  Blake, 
and  nine  hundred  and  forty  others  who  are  also  to 
be  counted  among  the  Founders  of  these  Institutions. 

And  last,  the  Philanthropist,  the  intimate  friend  of 
Bishop  Mcllvaine,  who  in  token  of  that  friendship 
founded  a  Professorship,  that  now  bears  his  name,  bears 
the  name  of  George  Peabody. 

We  mention  before  God  to-day,  with  reasons  that 
none  can  better  appreciate  than  this  community,  which 
mourns  their  loss,  two  of  our  own  citizens  who  are  well 
entitled  to  a  place  in  the  record  of  Founders — R.  S. 
French,  who,  with  the  assistance  of  friends  in  Gambler 
and  Mount  Vernon,  provided  the  full  set  of  nine  bells 


FOUNDERS'  DAY  AT  G A  MEIER:  IIJ 

and  the  clock,  and  placed  them  in  the  tower,  with  power 
to  ring  the  Canterbury  chimes  ;  Martinbro  White,  who 
was  for  twenty  years  Agent  and  Treasurer  of  these 
Institutions,  a  man  of  singular  probity  and  purity,  whose 
character  and  work,  whose  fidelity  to  his  trust,  whose 
honesty  as  well  as  honorable  dealing  during  difficult 
times  when  these  foundations  were  being  laid,  entitle 
him  not  only  to  a  place  in  our  grateful  recollection, 
but  to  a  place  among  the  chief  Founders  of  these 
Institutions. 

The  donors  to  these  Institutions  who  are  still  living 
(many  of  whom  have  gathered  on  this  day)  unite  with  us 
in  praising  God  for  the  privilege  of  building  upon  founda- 
tions which  were  thus  so  strongly  laid. 

Among  them  we  mention  with  gratitude: — of  England, 
William  E.  Gladstone,  Member  of  Parliament  (at 
present  Prime-Minister),  Rev,  Canon  Carus,  and  J.  Pye 
Smith  ; — of  the  United  States,  Rev.  Drs.  Dyer  and  Burr, 
Professor  Francis  Wharton,  A.  H.  Moss,  M.  M.  Granger, 
John  Gardiner,  Rev.  Archibald  M.  Morrison,  who 
founded  the  Griswold  Professorship  ;  Peter  Neff,  Jr.,  who 
gave  the  Telescope  and  Transit  Instrument ;  the  Rev. 
Drs.  Muenscher  and  Bronson,  and  several  hundred  others 
whose  names  are  recorded. 

The  third  Bishop  of  Ohio,  with  the  aid  of  William  H. 
and  John  Aspinwall,  James  M.  Brown,  Samuel  D,  Bab- 
cock,  William  B.  Astor,  and  other  members  of  the  Ascen- 
sion Church  of  New  York,  builded   the  Church  of  the 


114  FOUNDERS'  DAY  AT  GAMBIER. 

Holy  Spirit  for  the  use  of  all  the  Institutions  ;  through 
him  Mrs.  Bowler  founded  the  Professorship  which  bears 
her  husband's  name,  R.  B.  Bowler,  who  gave  a  philosophi- 
cal apparatus,  and  who,  with  Larz  Anderson,  Henry  Pro- 
basco,  William  Proctor,  and  others,  founded  the  Mcll- 
vaine  Professorship  ;  Jay  Cooke  founded  the  Professor- 
ship which  bears  his  father's  name  ;  Frank  E,  Richmond 
founded  the  Hoffman  Library  Fund  ;  Stewart  Brown 
builded  the  tower  of  the  Church,  to  bear  the  name  of  his 
son,  Abbott  Brown.  By  the  same  Bishop  and  his  wife 
the  Organ  was  placed  in  the  Church  as  a  memorial  of  the 
second  Bishop  of  the  Diocese,  and  the  Episcopal  chair 
as  a  memorial  of  the  great  Founder;  members  of  the 
Church  in  Philadelphia  completed  the  endowment  of 
the  Bedell  Professorship,  among  them  chiefly  William 
Welsh,  John  Bohlen  and  his  sister,  and  Thomas  H.  Pow- 
ers, who  also  left  a  Fund  in  the  hands  of  the  Vestry  of 
Christ  Church,  Germantown,  for  a  perpetual  supply  of 
specified  books  for  students  in  Bexley  Hall ;  and  Robert 
H.  Ives  and  his  wife,  who  stated  that,  desiring  not  to 
trammel  the  Trustees,  they  placed  their  fund  in  the  Treas- 
ury without  conditions. 

In  1875  the  Trustees  determined  to  found  a  "  Trustees' 
Professorship,"  which  is  partially  completed. 

All  these,  and  seventy  others,  are  also  to  be  counted 
among  the  Founders. 

We  mention  with  gratitude  the  successful  efforts  of  the 
present  President  of  Kenyon  College  to  complete  the  en- 


FOUNDERS'  DAY  AT  G A  METER.  1 1  5 

dowments,  and  the  gifts  which  have  resulted  therefrom, 
namely,  from  R.  B.  Hayes,  President  of  the  United 
States,  Peter  Hadyen,  Dr.  I.  T.  Hobbs,  Rev.  William 
Horton,  Thomas  McCulloch,  Samuel  L.  Mather,  William 
J.  Boardman,  A.  C.  Armstrong,  H.  P.  Baldwin ;  from 
John  W.  Andrews  a  donation  in  lands  for  the  founding 
of  Scholarships  in  memory  of  his  son  ;  from  Mrs.  Alfred 
Blake  donations  for  the  purpose  of  founding  a  Scholar- 
ship to  bear  her  husband's  name  ;  from  Columbus  De- 
lano the  Hall  which  bears  his  name  ;  from  Mrs.  Ezra 
Bliss  a  Gymnasium  which  is  being  built ;  and  from 
Henry  B.  Curtis  Scholarships  which  from  generation  to 
generation  will  foster  sound  learning.  These  also,  with 
thirty  others,  the  latest  givers  to  our  Institutions,  are  to 
be  counted  among  the  Founders. 

The  congregation  rising. 

For  all  these  generous  gifts  of  the  living,  and  for  the 
memory  of  the  dead  who  were  the  Founders  of  these 
Institutions,  we  give  hearty  thanks  to  God  this  day  ; 
ascribing  the  praise  of  their  benefactions  to  His  almighty 
grace,  and  the  glory  to  His  most  holy  Name,  who  is  the 
God  of  our  fathers  and  our  God,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and 
the  Holy  Ghost,  one  adorable  Trinity  for  ever  and 
ever.     Amen. 

prayer  for  the  institutions. 

O  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  fountain  of  all  wisdom,  source 
of  all  grace,  be  present  always,  we  beseech  Thee,  with 


Il6  FOUNDERS'  DAY  AT  GAMBIER. 

these  Institutions  to  direct  and  bless.  Established  in  the 
faith  of  the  Gospel,  endowed  for  the  service  of  divine 
truth,  may  they  ever  rest  under  Thy  gracious  benediction. 
We  pray  Thee  to  use  them  for  the  glory  of  Christ  in  His 
Church,  and  to  make  them  pure  fountains  of  heavenly 
knowledge,  holy  principles,  and  godly  learning.  We  be- 
seech Thee  to  give  to  those  who  teach  in  them  wisdom 
and  patience,  discreetness  and  zeal  for  God;  and  to  those 
who  are  taught,  aptness  to  learn,  docility,  submission 
without  servility,  and  manly  gentleness.  O  Holy  Spirit, 
make  these  Thy  servants  studious,  truthful,  pure,  obedient 
to  all  who  are  in  authority,  and  temperate  in  all  things; 
so  that,  by  Thy  grace,  the  same  mind  may  be  in  them 
which  was  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  and  their  character 
be  formed  in  His  holy  likeness.  Prosper  Thou,  O  Lord, 
the  work  of  our  hands  upon  us  !  Give  to  Thy  people  a 
liberal  heart  toward  these  Institutions.  May  the  memory 
of  those  whose  gifts  have  enriched  us  be  ever  precious  in 
our  sight,  as  it  is  blessed  of  God !  And  may  the  good 
name  of  these  Institutions  be  handed  down  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  for  the  comfort  of  Thy  Church,  and 
the  glory  of  Thy  Majesty,  Who  art,  with  the  Father  and 
the  Son,  the  One  God  whom  we  adore  for  ever  and  ever. 
Amen. 

THE  f RAYER  OF  LORD  BACON. 

ADAPTED    FOR    STUDENTS. 

To  God  the  Father,  God  the  Word,  and  God  the  Holy 
Spirit,  we  pour  forth  most  humble  and  hearty  supplica- 


FOUNDERS'  DAY  AT  GAMBIER.  II/ 

tions ;  that  He,  remembering  the  infirmities  of  our  minds, 
the  limits  of  our  knowledge,  and  the  pilgrimage  of  this 
our  life,  in  which  we  wear  out  days  few  and  evil,  would 
please  to  open  to  us  new  refreshments  out  of  the  fountain 
of  His  goodness  and  wisdom.  This  also  we  humbly  and 
earnestly  beg,  that  human  things  may  not  prejudice 
such  as  are  divine  ;  neither  that  from  the  unlocking  of  the 
gates  of  sense,  and  the  kindling  of  a  greater  natural  light, 
any  thing  of  incredulity  or  intellectual  night  may  arise 
in  our  minds  toward  divine  mysteries.  But  rather  that 
by  the  cleansing  of  them  through  the  study  of  truth,  and 
the  purging  them  from  fancy  and  vanities  by  the  entrance 
of  wisdom,  yet  subject  and  perfectly  given  up  to  the 
Divine  oracles,  there  may  be  given  unto  our  faith  the 
things  that  are  faith's  ;  through  Him  whom  truly  to  know 
is  everlasting  life  ;  and  to  whom,  with  Thee  O  Father,  and 
Thee  enlightening  Spirit,  we  ascribe  glory  and  praise  world 
without  end.     Amen. 


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